Brussels: Europe and the Arabs

Global energy markets are experiencing escalating tensions and a sharp rise in prices, as they react to the ongoing conflict in Iran and attacks on energy facilities in the Gulf states, raising serious concerns about supply disruptions.

Concurrently, Eurostat, the European statistical office in Brussels, announced that in 2025, the European Union imported energy products worth €336.7 billion, equivalent to 723.3 million tons. Compared to 2024, imports decreased in both value (-11.1%) and net volume (-0.6%).

Energy product imports have been declining in both value and volume since 2022: the value fell by 51.4% from €693.4 billion, and the volume decreased by 14.9% from 849.6 million tons.

As for oil, the value of oil imports decreased (-17.8%) and the volume of imports decreased (-6.1%) compared to 2024. In contrast, LNG imports saw a significant increase in both value (+35.2%) and volume (+24.4%).

Regarding natural gas in its gaseous state, the value of imports increased by 3.4%, while the volume decreased by 5.3%.
The United States and Norway remain the most important energy suppliers.

In 2025, the United States (15.1%), Norway (14.4%), and Kazakhstan (12.7%) were the EU's largest oil import partners.

The United States was also the largest supplier of LNG, providing more than half of LNG imports (56.0%), ahead of Russia (13.9%) and Qatar (8.9%). Norway was the main supplier of natural gas in its gaseous state, accounting for 52.1% of imports. Algeria came next with 17.4%, followed by Russia with 10.4%.