London: EU Heading for Record Oil Deficit Energy24

December 07, 2000

The continuing high price of oil coupled with the weak exchange value of the euro is having a devastating effect on the European Union's balance of trade.

Provisional trade figures for the first 9 months of 2000 suggest that the 15-nation group is heading for a record oil deficit with the rest of the world this year of some euro 80 billion, equivalent to its total external trade imbalance.

The cost of oil imports between January and September have more than doubled to euro 85 bln compared with the same period in 1999 and now represent 11.5 per cent of the EU's import bill, up from 7 per cent last year.

While oil exports to the rest of the world were also up by 85 per cent to euro 19 bln, the EU has been left with a net oil bill of euro 66 bln in the first 9 months of 2000, some euro 2 bln more than its total trade deficit.

The share of the oil deficit by eurozone countries was euro 60 bln, but without it, the 11 members would have recorded a trade surplus totalling euro 30 bln in the first three quarters of this year

http://denver.petroleumplace.com/egatecom/scream/2000/12/07/eng-Energy24/eng-Energy24_082332_146_987389214337.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), December 07, 2000