Visualizing the EU's Energy Dependency
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Visualizing the EU’s Energy Dependency

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EU Energy Dependency

Visualizing the EU’s Energy Dependency

This was originally posted on Elements. Sign up to the free mailing list to get beautiful visualizations on natural resource megatrends in your email every week.

In response to Russiaโ€™s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. and EU have imposed heavy sanctions aimed at crippling the Russian economy. However, these bold actions also come with some potentially messy complications: Russia is not only one of the world’s largest exporters of energy products, but it is also Europe’s biggest supplier of these fuels.

As of October 2021, Russia supplied 25% of all oil imported by the EU, which is three times more than the second-largest trade partner. Naturally, the policies and circumstances that have led to this dependency have been under major scrutiny in recent weeks.

To help you learn more, this infographic visualizes energy data from Eurostat.

Energy Dependency, by Country

To start, letโ€™s compare the energy dependence of each EU member, both in 2000 and 2020 (the latest year available). This metric shows the extent to which a country relies upon imports to meet its energy needs.

Note that Denmarkโ€™s value of -35.9% for the year 2000 is not a typo. Rather, it means that the country was a net exporter of energy.

Country20002020
๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡น Austria65.5%58.3%
๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ช Belgium78.2%78.0%
๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฌ Bulgaria46.4%37.9%
๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡ท Croatia48.5%53.6%
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡พ Cyprus98.6%93.1%
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฟ Czechia22.7%38.9%
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Denmark-35.9%44.9%
๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ช Estonia34.0%10.6%
๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ฎ Finland55.5%42.0%
๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท France51.2%44.5%
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช Germany59.4%63.7%
๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ท Greece69.1%81.4%
๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡บ Hungary55.0%56.6%
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ช Ireland85.4%71.3%
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น Italy86.5%73.5%
๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡ป Latvia61.0%45.5%
๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡น Lithuania57.8%74.9%
๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡บ Luxembourg99.6%92.5%
๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡น Malta100.2%97.6%
๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฑ Netherlands38.3%68.1%
๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฑ Poland10.7%42.8%
๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡น Portugal85.3%65.3%
๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡ด Romania21.9%28.2%
๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Slovakia65.1%56.3%
๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฎ Slovenia51.9%45.8%
๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ธ Spain76.8%67.9%
๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ช Sweden39.3%33.5%
Average56.3%57.5%

Over this 20-year timeframe, the EU-27 average country’s energy dependence has increased from 56.3% to 57.5%, meaning EU members became slightly more reliant on energy imports over those two decades.

Where Do EU’s Energy Imports Come From?

Looking further into energy imports reveals that Russia is the main supplier of crude oil, coal, and natural gas. Continue below for more details.

Crude Oil Imports

The EU imports more crude oil from Russia than the next three countries combined.

CountryPercentage of total
๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡บ Russia26.9%
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ถ Iraq9.0%
๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฌ Nigeria7.9%
๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฆ Saudi Arabia7.7%
๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ฟ Kazakhstan7.3%
๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ด Norway7.0%
๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡พ Libya6.2%
๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ United States5.3%
๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง United Kingdom4.9%
๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ฟ Azerbaijan4.5%
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฟ Algeria2.4%
Others10.9%

This shouldnโ€™t come as a surprise, as Russia was the worldโ€™s third largest producer of oil in 2020. The country has several state-owned oil companies including Rosneft and Gazprom.

Coal Imports

Coal-fired power plants are still being used across the EU, though most member states expect to completely phase them out by 2030.

CountryPercentage of total
๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡บ Russia46.7%
๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ United States17.7%
๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Australia13.7%
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ด Colombia8.2%
๐Ÿ‡ฟ๐Ÿ‡ฆ South Africa2.8%
Others10.9%

Russia has the second largest coal reserves in the world. In 2020, it mined 328 million metric tons, making it the sixth largest producer globally.

Natural Gas Imports

Natural gas is commonly used to heat buildings and water. A majority of the EUโ€™s supply comes from Russia via the Nord Stream series of pipelines.

CountryPercentage of total
๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡บ Russia41.1%
๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ด Norway16.2%
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฟ Algeria7.6%
๐Ÿ‡ถ๐Ÿ‡ฆ Qatar5.2%
Others29.9%

Nord Stream 1 is the longest sub-sea pipeline in the world and was completed in 2011. It starts from the Russian city of Vyborg and connects to the EU through Germany.

Nord Stream 2 is a recently constructed expansion which was expected to double the projectโ€™s capacity. Germany has since halted the approval process for this pipeline in response to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

What Happens Now?

In retaliation against Western sanctions, Russia has announced an impending ban on exports of certain goods and raw materials.

European gas prices skyrocketed in response, as many fear that Russia could cut off natural gas supplies. This, of course, would have very negative effects on both consumers and businesses.

In early March 2022, both the European Commission and the International Energy Agency (IEA) introduced proposals on how Europe could reduce its energy dependency.

We must become independent from Russian oil, coal and gas. We simply cannot rely on a supplier who explicitly threatens us.
– Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission

Cutting off oneโ€™s biggest supplier is likely to cause issues, especially when dealing with something as critical as energy. Few countries have the capacity (or willingness) to immediately replace Russian imports.

The proposals also discussed options for boosting Europeโ€™s domestic output, though the commissionโ€™s report notably excluded nuclear power. For various reasons, nuclear remains a polarizing topic in Europe, with countries taking either a pro or anti stance.

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Energy

Visualizing the Scale of Global Fossil Fuel Production

How much oil, coal, and natural gas do we extract each year? See the scale of annual fossil fuel production in perspective.

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The Scale of Global Fossil Fuel Production

This was originally posted on Elements. Sign up to the free mailing list to get beautiful visualizations on natural resource megatrends in your email every week.

Fossil fuels have been our predominant source of energy for over a century, and the world still extracts and consumes a colossal amount of coal, oil, and gas every year.

This infographic visualizes the volume of global fossil fuel production in 2021 using data from BPโ€™s Statistical Review of World Energy.

The Facts on Fossil Fuels

In 2021, the world produced around 8 billion tonnes of coal, 4 billion tonnes of oil, and over 4 trillion cubic meters of natural gas.

Most of the coal is used to generate electricity for our homes and offices and has a key role in steel production. Similarly, natural gas is a large source of electricity and heat for industries and buildings. Oil is primarily used by the transportation sector, in addition to petrochemical manufacturing, heating, and other end uses.

Hereโ€™s a full breakdown of coal, oil, and gas production by country in 2021.

Coal Production

If all the coal produced in 2021 were arranged in a cube, it would measure 2,141 meters (2.1km) on each sideโ€”more than 2.5 times the height of the worldโ€™s tallest building.

China produced 50% or more than four billion tonnes of the worldโ€™s coal in 2021. Itโ€™s also the largest consumer of coal, accounting for 54% of coal consumption in 2021.

Rank Country2021 Coal Production
(million tonnes)
% of Total
#1๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China 4,126.050%
#2๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ India 811.310%
#3๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฉ Indonesia 614.08%
#4๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ U.S. 524.46%
#5๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Australia 478.66%
#6๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡บ Russia 433.75%
#7๐Ÿ‡ฟ๐Ÿ‡ฆ South Africa 234.53%
#8๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช Germany 126.02%
#9๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ฟ Kazakhstan 115.71%
#10๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฑ Poland 107.61%
๐ŸŒ Other 600.97%
Total8,172.6100%

India is both the second largest producer and consumer of coal. Meanwhile, Indonesia is the worldโ€™s largest coal exporter, followed by Australia.

In the West, U.S. coal production was down 47% as compared to 2011 levels, and the descent is likely to continue with the clean energy transition.

Oil Production

In 2021, the United States, Russia, and Saudi Arabia were the three largest crude oil producers, respectively.

Rank Country2021 Oil Production
(million tonnes)
% of Total
#1๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ U.S. 711.117%
#2๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡บ Russia 536.413%
#3๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฆ Saudi Arabia 515.012%
#4๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ Canada 267.16%
#5๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ถ Iraq 200.85%
#6๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China 198.95%
#7๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ท Iran 167.74%
#8๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ช UAE 164.44%
#9 ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ท Brazil156.84%
#10๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ผ Kuwait 131.13%
๐ŸŒ Other 1172.028%
Total4221.4100%

OPEC countries, including Saudi Arabia, made up the largest share of production at 35% or 1.5 billion tonnes of oil.

U.S. oil production has seen significant growth since 2010. In 2021, the U.S. extracted 711 million tonnes of oil, more than double the 333 million tonnes produced in 2010.

Natural Gas Production

The world produced 4,036 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2021. The above graphic converts that into an equivalent of seven billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to visualize it on the same scale as oil and gas.

Here are the top 10 producers of natural gas in 2021:

Rank Country2021 Natural Gas Production
(billion m3)
% of Total
#1๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ U.S. 934.223%
#2๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡บ Russia 701.717%
#3๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ท Iran 256.76%
#4๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China 209.25%
#5๐Ÿ‡ถ๐Ÿ‡ฆ Qatar 177.04%
#6๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ Canada 172.34%
#7๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Australia 147.24%
#8๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฆ Saudi Arabia 117.33%
#9๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ด Norway 114.33%
#10๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฟ Algeria 100.82%
๐ŸŒ Other 1106.327%
Total4,036.9100%

The U.S. was the largest producer, with Texas and Pennsylvania accounting for 47% of its gas production. The U.S. electric power and industrial sectors account for around one-third of domestic natural gas consumption.

Russia, the next-largest producer, was the biggest exporter of gas in 2021. It exported an estimated 210 billion cubic meters of natural gas via pipelines to Europe and China. Around 80% of Russian natural gas comes from operations in the Arctic region.

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