Undoubtedly, 2024 will be the most difficult and crucial year for Ukraine and the whole of Europe in terms of energy supply throughout the course of the past few decades. Russia had been pumping the European Union with its gasoline, diesel fuel, and other petroleum products for years, until Europe faced the strategic need to find alternative energy supplies and, consequently, develop its own energy sources in the spring of 2022. It turned out that the task was not easy, as more than 83% of Russian diesel fuel and gas oil had been coming to the EU from Russia. The last one exported the rest of the oil products to countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, South America, and even North America. This study was conducted by Ukrainian analyst of the consulting group “A-95” Ivan Marchenkov.
During the first six months of 2022, Europe began buying fuel from different countries all over the world, including Russia. Therefore, the EU managed to accumulate strategic reserves of diesel fuel and gas oil for several months, and exports of Russian crude oil fell by 22% in December 2022. It was published in the article by The Wall Street Journal
Today, the United States and the Middle East countries have become the largest fuel donors to the EU, and the last one has increased its oil production many times over, which has made it possible to opt out of Russian diesel and gasoline. Moreover, Europe has imposed a ban on the supply of petroleum products from Russia to the European Union and has established maximum prices for them for third countries since February 5, 2023. Currently, the EU countries are actively working to introduce a similar embargo on Russian gas.
