Page 9 - FSUOGM Week 16 2022

FSUOGM POLICY FSUOGM

be easier to cut off, as each country can source a third of that went to China, with the EU coun-
the refined products from other suppliers. The tries of the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and
Netherlands, France, Turkey and Germany are Italy receiving the next 30% – Germany being the
the biggest customers. The US also imported biggest EU customer.
$4bn worth of refined products that year, but has From the Russian side, if the EU cuts off deliv-
now banned the trade following the invasion of eries then this volume of oil would be too big to
Ukraine. send to other markets, as they simply could not
Still, even this will be painful for many that absorb it all. Big non-European customers like
are heavily dependent on Russia for oil. Latvia India and China wouldn't want to try either, as
relies on Russia for 64% of its oil imports, with they would have to cut back on other suppliers
its two Baltic neighbours Lithuania and Estonia and raise their dependency on Russia as a sup-
importing 45.6% and 43.6% respectively. Poland plier to over 40%, which comes with political
also relies on Russia for more than half (54.9%) of consequences.
its oil, while another half dozen EU countries get In addition, there is no pipeline infrastructure
around a quarter or a third of their oil from Rus- to rapidly increase supplies to Asia, so the entire
sia, according to a survey of the 25 counties most European supply, most of which is currently
dependent on Russian oil imports by 247wallst. piped, would have to be loaded on to ships. Rus-
com. sia’s own fleet of supertankers is insufficient to
Cutting off crude exports is much harder, carry all this oil and could manage about 10%
partly because some of the biggest European of the total. All Russia’s Soviet-era oil pipeline
refineries are still hooked into the Soviet-era infrastructure is pointed west, with only two
Druzhba pipelines that make it difficult to switch new low-capacity oil pipelines currently running
suppliers of crude. from the Siberian oilfields eastwards, and both of
Russia exported $74.4bn of crude in 2020, but those are already at full capacity. ™

Denmark to temporarily boost

North Sea gas output

DENMARK DENMARK has vowed to temporarily expand (boepd) over the next 25 years.
natural gas production in the North Sea in order “But since we are part of the European gas
Denmark notably to become more independent of Russian sup- network, we also need other countries to become
banned new oil and gas plies, despite previously banning further hydro- independent,” Frederiksen continued.
exploration last year. carbon exploration. The temporary closure of Tyra led to Den-
“We will increase production of natural gas in mark ramping up gas imports. But output at
the North Sea for a limited time period,” Prime other Danish fields has also been declining, and
Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters dur- for several years exploration activity has been
ing a brief on April 19. “We are convinced it’s limited. Preventing a revival in drilling, Den-
better to produce gas in the North Sea than buy mark’s government and parliament agreed in
it from Vladimir Putin.” December 2020 to impose a ban on further oil
Denmark could become independent of and gas exploration. The eventual aim is to cease
Russian gas as soon as next year. This is when oil and gas production completely by 2050.
TotalEnergies plans to resume gas flow at Tyra, Frederiksen also said the government aimed
Denmark’s largest gas field, which went offline to expand onshore wind and solar power gener-
in 2019 so that its platforms could be modified. ation fourfold within eight years, and ramp up
At peak output, the field is expected to supply offshore wind power generation by between 1
around 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and 4 GW during that time. ™

Week 16 21•April•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9