The EU relied on net imports for 87% of its oil consumption in 2017, according to the EU's statistics watchdog Eurostat on Wednesday.
The watchdog said that this ratio, known as the oil import dependency rate, was unchanged from 2016, but is two percentage points below the peak of 89% recorded in 2015.
In 18 EU member states, the levels of net oil imports were close to their oil consumption levels, with dependency rates lying between 96% and 104%, it noted.
Dependency rates above 100% indicate a build-up of oil stocks, while negative dependency rates indicate a net exporting country. In the list of all EU member states, only Denmark holds a negative dependency rate of -4%.
Denmark has been a net exporter of oil and natural gas since 1997, while forecasts show that Denmark will remain a net exporter until the 2020s, according to Danish Energy Agency.
The U.K. with the second lowest dependency rate of 35% followed Denmark. On the other end of the scale was Estonia with 115%, the highest oil import dependency rate among EU member states in 2017. The country was followed by Malta with a 104% dependency rate.
In 2017, the EU's total imports of crude oil amounted to 565.7 million tonnes, the majority of which came from Russia with 163.1 million tonnes, Norway with 61.4 million tonnes, Iraq with 44 million tonnes, Kazakhstan with 39.7 million tonnes and Saudi Arabia with 35.6 million tonnes, according to Eurostat data.
By Ebru Sengul
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr