Fresh data published by Eurostat on March 18th helps to show just how Latvia has managed to reduce its energy dependency on external suppliers – and especially Russia.
In 2024, the main energy product category imported into the European Union was oil and petroleum products (including crude oil, which is the main component), accounting for 67% of energy imports into the EU, followed by natural gas (24%), solid fossil fuels (4%), electricity (3%), and renewable energy (2%). Regarding the different products, the largest share of oil and petroleum products came from the United States (16%), natural gas came mostly from Norway (30%) and the biggest share of solid fossil fuel imports (mostly coal) originated from Australia (31%).
The energy imports dependency rate in the EU was 57%, which means that nearly 60% of the EU’s energy needs were met by net imports. However, the dependency rate varied across EU countries. The highest levels were found in Malta (98%), Luxembourg (91%) and Cyprus (88%), while the lowest dependency was in Estonia (5%), Sweden (27%) and Latvia (29%).
The data show that back in 2004 Latvia’s import dependency rate was a high 69% – so the turnaround over two decades is significant indeed. Breaking down the data, from 2004 to 2024, Latvia’s solid fossil fuel (e.g. coal) import dependency rate fell from 96% to 67%, though in both natural gas and oil and petroleum products, Latvia remains totally dependent upon imports.
During the same period Estonia reduced its import dependency rate from 30% to just under 5%, whereas Lithuania’s dependency rate actually increased from 45% to 66%
It is also worth noting that the data relates to 2024 and therefore describes the situation before Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania completely severed their electricity connections to Russia and Belarus in 2025.
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