The option with serious sanctions against Russian oil and gas exports is unlikely, but in the event of such a scenario, Europe's losses will be more serious than those of Russia. Analysts of the British Vortexa came to such conclusions.
The experts concluded that about 34% of the offshore imports of crude oil that came to Europe in 2021 were Russian.
"...In the event of a reduction in supplies of these energy resources, refineries in Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and France would be at greatest risk," Bloomberg quoted the experts' report as saying.
The report says that over the past few years the EU has not been able to "reduce its dependence on Russian crude oil. In the case of the worst-case scenario, Europe will have great difficulty replacing the volumes and types of oil, which might be lost due to supplies from Russia.
But in the case of the extreme scenario, Europe will have to find a way to avoid losing about 2.4 million barrels per day of Russian high-sulfur oil (not including Kazakh hydrocarbons).
"This looks like an impossible task given the current situation with global low crude stocks and decreasing confidence of OPEC producers in the Middle East," Vortexa experts summarize.