After the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Germany has already reduced the share of crude oil imported from Russia from 35% to 12%.
Germany intends to stop oil imports from Russia by the end of 2022, even if the European Union is unable to agree on an oil embargo, writes the publication Bloomberg with reference to sources in the German government.
Agreements with alternative suppliers are successful, the government says, and it will take six to seven months to resolve the remaining logistical problems. In particular, they are now looking for alternative sources of raw materials for a large refinery in Schwedt, which supplies fuel, including the airport and most of Berlin's gas stations.
The embargo on Russian oil by the end of 2022 is envisaged in the sixth package of EU sanctions, which was announced by the President of the European Commission on May 4. Hungary, which is heavily dependent on Russia, did not want to give up Russian oil. Also, the refusal to import Russian oil would hit the economies of Slovakia and the Czech Republic hard. Due to such problems, the European Commission has proposed to give these three countries more time to withdraw: until 2024. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has proposed discussing the embargo at the EU summit in late May.
Read also: Reduction Russia's dependence on gas: Germany agrees to cooperate in energy with Qatar
The issue of restricting energy exports from Russia has been actively discussed in the EU for several weeks. Read more about this in the article by Mikhail Gonchar “Europe in Russia's energy trap: how to overcome dependence?”
