Germany's crude oil import bill for January-December 2011 rose 29.0 percent to 53.7 billion euros ($70.97 billion) from a year ago, as higher prices outweighed lower volumes, official data showed.
Germany's average border oil price in the period, at 592.72 euros a tonne, was up 32.9 percent from the year earlier, economic and foreign trade statistics office BAFA said. The crude import bill was 41.6 billion euros in 2010. The oil import volume in January-December was 90.5 million tonnes, down 2.9 percent year on year. Some 39.0 percent of the oil came from Russia, 22.2 percent from the British and Norwegian North Sea and 18.2 percent from OPEC members, among others.
Libya ranked seventh as a source of oil in the full year, with 388,000 tonnes shipped to Germany in December alone. The country, where fighting broke out between rebels and forces loyal to former leader Muammar Gaddafi last February, has slipped from its long-standing place as number five.
BAFA data showed Libyan oil sent to Germany fell steeply from February to zero in July, August and September. In January, before the fighting, Libya sent 748,000 tonnes to Germany. But international firms started resuming production following the end of war, defeat of Gaddafi's troops and the installation of an interim government, among them BASF's Wintershall.
BAFA gave the following details for Germany's top 10 crude oil import sources, out of 40 listed and one small category of unnamed others (in '000 tonnes):
Jan-Dec '11 Jan-Dec '10 Dec '11
Russia 35,328 33,896 3,289
Britain 12,703 13,070 706
Norway 7,395 8,846 798
Kazakhstan 7,325 8,098 604
Nigeria 5,431 3,943 508
Azerbaijan 3,070 3,745 211
Libya 2,781 7,278 388
Algeria 2,761 1,013 149
Syria 1,575 2,713 0
Egypt 1,539 1,059 133
($1 = 0.7566 euros)
(Source: Reuters)