German crude oil imports rose 14.6% in the first four months of 2022 from a year earlier, according to official data, while rising prices doubled the import bill as the economy recovered from the coronavirus disease .
Germany’s largest oil supplier remains Russia, accounting for 35 percent of Germany’s total oil imports during the same period, according to monthly data from the foreign exchange Trade Office of the Federal Office for Economic and Export Control (Bafa) .
This is followed by imports from the UK and the Norwegian North Sea, with the remainder shared by other sources, including Kazakhstan and the US.
Bafa delayed the release of import data by two months. That means the effects of Russia’s conflict with Ukraine — leading to economic sanctions against Russia and counteractions on energy flows — are only slowly starting to emerge.
Germany’s oil imports from all sources rose to 28.5 million tonnes in January-April this year, up from 24.9 million tonnes in the same period in 2021, Bafa said. Germany spent 18.5 billion euros on crude oil imports over the past four months, up 99 percent from the same period last year.
Bafa said the average import price was 647.57 euros per ton, up 74 percent from the same period last year.