ANTON ZUBCHEVSKYI/Shutterstock Save for later Print Download Share LinkedIn Twitter Europe's efforts to reduce imports of Russian oil have stalled. Tanker data for August show the EU continues to buy Russian oil in almost a business-as-usual way despite looming embargoes on imports — Dec. 5 for crude and Feb. 5 for products. Shipping data show the EU loaded slightly more crude from Russia in August than in July. The data suggest that EU nations bought far less refined products in August, but many vessels had "unknown" destinations and were pointed toward Europe, which could bring August imports close to July levels. Shortly after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, European oil majors and traders scaled back their spot buying of Russian crude oil and promised not to renew term contracts. But after a quick reduction of some 600,000 barrels per day of seaborne crude imports and 100,000 b/d of seaborne products imports, the EU has not made much further progress, with seaborne crude and product imports running around 1 million b/d each in recent months. The Druzhba pipeline that delivers Russian crude to Germany, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary, has also kept flowing around its pre-war rate of 800,000 b/d.
