Austria stopped importing, refining Russian oil in March, claims OMV

As Europe is looking to limit the use of Russian oil and gas to put pressure on the Russian Federation in the midst of the war with Ukraine, an official with the Austrian oil and gas corporation OMV stated on Thursday that Austria had stopped importing and refining oil from Russia in March. As per the reports of TASS, the spokesperson of OMV said that Russian crude oil has traditionally played a minor role at OMV's refineries in Schwechat, Austria and Burghausen, Germany. The spokesperson also stated that they replaced Russian crude oil from the market in March and claimed that they do not refine Russian oil at the moment.

Kazakhstan has been Austria's most important oil supplier for many years, which supplies 38.9% of oil to Austria. Libya which imports 22.1% and Iraq which imports 21.1% are the next two countries on the list. 80% of Austria's oil imports come from these three countries, according to TASS. Austrian statistical office suggests that Russian imports contributed to only 7.8% of the 596,000 tonnes of oil supplied to Austria in 2021.

OMV spokesperson also said that purchases of Russian oil have always been modest when the war broke out and that they have replaced it with other oil from the market. At the same time, Austria still remains reliant on Russian natural gas, with Russia supplying 80% of the country's natural gas. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that the sixth package of European sanctions against Russia, which does not include an oil embargo, will be weak and hollow.

Germany intends to stop importing Russian energy resources

Germany, which imports more than a third of its oil from Russia also wants to stop importing Russian energy resources as soon as possible and has a plan in place to do so. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock stated that security in Europe entails reducing reliance on Russia, particularly in terms of energy policy, according to Ukrinform. She claimed that by the end of the summer Germany will cease to import Russian energy resources, including coal. She also said that by the summer, oil imports will be cut in half, and by the end of the year, they will be zero.

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