A recovering Libyan oil sector sent 779,000 tonnes of crude to Germany in February, up from 595,000 tonnes in January and 388,000 tonnes in December, putting it third-highest in Germany's oil imports, economic and
foreign trade statistics office BAFA data showed on Wednesday.
The figure was up from 614,000 tonnes in February 2011 when fighting broke out between rebels and forces loyal to former leader Muammar Gaddafi, damaging oil installations and disrupting exports throughout 2011. Libya in Jan-Feb taken together was ranked fourth after Russia, Britain and Norway but in Feb overtook Norway. Germany's Jan-Feb oil import bill was 20.5 percent up from a year earlier at 10 billion euros ($13.34 billion), BAFA said.
Germany's average border oil prices in the two months rose by 18.8 percent from Jan-Feb 2011 to 654.30 euros a tonne. Oil imports by volume rose 1.9 percent year on year to 15.2 million tonnes in the two months.
Some 38.8 percent of oil imports in the year to date came from Russia, 25.4 percent from the British and Norwegian North Sea and 18.9 percent from OPEC members, among others.
Another noticeable factor was Syria, which is engulfed in violence and has sent no oil for a third consecutive month. Syria ranked ninth among Germany's suppliers for the full year 2011. BAFA gave the following details, among others, for the top 10 crude oil import sources (in '000 tonnes). It monitored 33 origins in total:
Jan/Feb '12 Jan/Feb '11 Feb '12 alone
Russia 5,931 5,318 2,898
Britain 2,318 2,277 1,101
Norway 1,547 1,124 663
Libya 1,374 1,362 779
Nigeria 865 849 288
Kazakhstan 815 1,465 427
Azerbaijan 524 605 292
Egypt 407 229 113
Algeria 304 467 100
Colombia 151 0 93
($1 = 0.7497 euros)
(Source: Reuters)
