Over three quarters of all EU imports from Russia were energy products in 2017, according to a newly released article by the European Commission (EC) on Thursday.
The article, EU Imports of Energy Products - Recent Developments, showed that Russia was the largest supplier of natural gas to the EU, both in 2016 and 2017.
Russia's share of EU imports of natural gas stood at 37 percent in 2017, down from 39.5 percent in 2016.
The other country that had a large share of the EU's natural gas imports was Norway, and significantly lower contributions came from Algeria and Qatar, the EC noted.
The global percentage share in trade of all other natural gas exporting countries to the EU was 6 percent in 2016 and 8 percent in 2017, it added.
Russia was less dominant in petroleum oils than in natural gas but was still far ahead of the second largest supplier, Norway, the article showed. Russia's share of petroleum oils in EU imports was 30.9 percent last year and 31.7 percent in 2016.
"Kazakhstan and Iraq were third and fourth while Nigeria replaced Saudi Arabia as the fifth largest producer. The share of the top six [producers] dropped from 72.1 percent in 2016 to 69.9 percent in 2017," the EC article read.
- Crude oil dominates imports
With the exception of peat and coke, the EU is a net importer of energy products, by which imports are higher than exports, the EC noted.
Crude oil largely dominated EU imports of energy products with a share of 69 percent in 2017, followed by natural gas with 20 percent.
The amount of crude oil imported last year was 0.6 percentage points more than 2016, the EC noted, adding that the amount of natural gas imported was 1.4 percentage points less.
The share of coal increased by 1.2 percentage points, according to the EC's article.
- Energy bill increases
The average monthly value of imports during 2017 in energy products rose by 31 percent compared with 2016, from �17.3 billion per month to �22.7 billion, according to the article.
However compared with 2012, the energy bill decreased by 40 percent from �38 billion per month to �22.7 billion in 2017.
By Ebru Sengul
Anadolu Agency