According to the data provided by Romanian National Institute for Statistics (INS), Romania’s crude oil imports in the first ten months of 2022 amounted to 7.227 million tons of oil equivalent, which is by 1.714 million tons of oil equivalent or 31.1 % more than in the same period last year.
At the same time, crude oil production in Romania amounted to 2.436 million tons of oil equivalent, which is 6.2 % or 162,400 tons of oil equivalent less compared to the same period in 2021.
According to the estimates of the National Commission for Strategy and Forecast, domestic crude oil production for 2022 is estimated at 3.17 million tons of oil equivalent (- 2.3 % compared to 2020) and 3.095 million tons of oil equivalent in 2023 (- 2.3 %). Imports are expected to reach 7.25 million tons of oil equivalent this year (+ 6.4 %) and 7.83 million tons of oil equivalent in 2023 (+ 6.5 %).
Romania’s draft Energy Strategy estimates that crude oil production will continue its slow downward trend between 2030 and 2050, and will decrease from 22 to 13 TWh (1.93 to 1.15 million tons of oil equivalent) in that period.
Romania imports oil mainly from Russia and Kazakhstan, as the largest Romanian refineries are owned by companies from Russia (Lukoil – Petrotel) and Kazakhstan (Rompetrol – Petromidia). However, as of 5 December 2022, the European Union has banned crude oil imports from Russia.
