EU energy imports fell in Q4 2023.
The European Union imported energy products worth 111.3 billion euros ($120.9 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2023, totaling 187.9 million tonnes, down 34.2% in value and 11.7% in net mass, the European statistics office Eurostat said on Friday.
Over the entire past year, the value of energy products fell by 35 percent compared to 2022, while volume fell by 9.4 percent.
Eurostat attributed the fall in import values to a significant drop in prices.
In 2023, the value of imported natural gas decreased by 52.2 percent compared to 2022, while the volume decreased by 16.1 percent.
The office pointed to the effects of the reduction plan adopted by the European Union, under which member states committed to reducing their gas consumption by at least 15 percent.
This plan initially ran from August 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023, and was extended until March 31, 2024.
On the other hand, the decline in petroleum oil prices led to a 17.2 percent decrease in the value of imports of these products in 2023 and a 2.8 percent decrease in their volume.
Norway and the United States are the EU's main suppliers of energy products, with more than half of the imported LNG in Q4 2023 coming from Norway, at 53.4 percent, while the United States supplied nearly half of the imported LNG, at 49.4 percent.
