For the first time in history, Britain does not import oil from Russia

Bloomberg wrote about this on August 24, 2022.

In June, Great Britain did not import oil from the Russian Federation for the first time, as it achieved its goal of gradually abandoning the purchase of fuel from this country.  This was the goal the British government set for itself after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Figures, released by the Office for National Statistics on Wednesday, showed fuel imports from Russia, which averaged £499 million a month in the year through February, fell to zero for the first time in data going back to 1997.

Prior to the invasion of Ukraine, Russia was the UK’s largest supplier of refined oil, the ONS said. The nation accounted for 24.1% of all imports of that commodity. It also supplied 5.9% of the UK’s crude oil imports, and 4.9% of the gas imports.

After the invasion, there have been increases in imports of refined oil from Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Belgium and Kuwait in recent months; partially compensating for reduced imports from Russia.

Total imports of goods from Russia totaled £33 million in June, down about 97% from the average in the year before the invasion.