Russia's aggression against Ukraine and the Western sanctions that followed it have stripped Russia of its status as an energy leader in Europe and practically turned the United States into one. This is reported by The Wall Street Journal, citing data on the volume of gas and oil exports from the US to the EU, which grew by about 38% over the past year. Europe has overtaken Asia to become the main energy market for the United States, the newspaper notes.
The main buyers of American oil in Europe, as expected, were the largest economies – Germany, France, Italy and Spain; the latter, for example, increased oil supplies from the United States by 88% over the year. The total supply of crude oil from the US to the EU energy company Kpler estimates at 1.53 million barrels per day. For comparison: the volume of oil supplies from Russia to the EU in October 2022 – even before the imposition of sanctions – was only 1.4 million barrels per day.
“The United States has regained its dominant position in the energy market at the level of the 50s of the last century. American energy has become the foundation of European energy security,” said Daniel Yergin, vice president and energy expert at S&P Global.
The publication notes that the exodus of Russia from the European market actually led to a new revival of American energy and spurred oil production. The US returned to the top spot in oil production even before the war, but the Russian invasion cemented that status for the US. WSJ compares the current situation with the times of World War II, when the US helped its allies, including oil and fuel, in the fight against Nazi Germany.
A similar dynamic is observed with gas supplies, which Europe had to abandon even faster than oil, due to explosions on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines. The White House estimates that gas exports to the EU doubled in 2022. Analysts note that the increase in oil and gas supplies from the United States helped prevent the price collapse that Russia was trying to provoke. American exports kept energy prices at an acceptable level.
For Russia, such statistics do not bode well. The war has robbed Moscow of its main market, and hasty efforts to replace Europe with India and China have left Russian oilmen vulnerable to huge discounts on their products. The Center for Energy and Clean Air Research (CREA) estimates that Western sanctions cost Russia about $305 million a day.