Brussels, Feb 18 (Agency) The European Union statistical office Eurostat on Friday unveiled data showing that final consumption of oil and petroleum across the bloc dropped sharply in 2020, when member states began enforcing restrictions to thwart the Covid-19 pandemic. “In 2020, the final consumption of oil and petroleum products for energy purposes in the EU fell to 310 Mtoe [million tons of oil equivalent] (-10 per cent) in just one year, reaching the lowest level ever recorded in the 31-year time series. This shows the effects of the Covid restrictions, which started in the first few months of 2020 in most EU Member States,” Eurostat said. The data showed that after peaking at 408 Mtoe in 2004, consumption began to decline, hitting a minimum of 333 Mtoe in 2014. Then, oil and petroleum usage began to climb back up, until hitting a setback caused by pandemic restrictions in 2020. According to Eurostat, pandemic constraints affected energy consumption across EU member states unevenly.
“Considering energy and non-energy use, the largest drops in consumption were recorded in Luxembourg (-21 per cent compared with 2019), followed by Malta (-16 per cent) and Greece, Spain, Sweden and Slovenia (all -15 per cent). Small increases in consumption were recorded only in Finland and Slovakia (around +0.4 per cent),” Eurostat said. Furthermore, the data showed that the EU remains heavily dependent on external oil and petroleum supplies, with imports in 2020 amounting to 97 per cent. The level of crude oil production was extremely low, only 18.7 million tons, while petroleum production decrease drastically, by 12 per cent compared to 2019. Eurostat added that the share of each member state in total EU consumption was relative to the size and structure of their economies, with Germany accounting for 23 per cent of total consumption, followed by France with 16 per cent, and Italy and Spain with 10 per cent each.