Europe’s oil bill: EU pays €10bn more per month than in 2025

European countries are paying far more for petroleum oil imports this year, following tensions in the Middle East in February 2026. Consumers are already facing higher petrol and diesel prices. Now, the EU’s import bill shows just how sharply costs have risen.

In the second quarter of 2026, the EU spent an average of €27. 6 billion a month on petroleum oil imports, up 55. 8% from €17.

7 billion a month in 2025. But the volume of oil imported barely changed. It rose by just 1.

2%, from 36. 3 million tonnes a month in 2025 to 36. 7 million tonnes.

That means the EU paid €9. 9 billion more a month. The cost per tonne also rose, from €487 to €750 over the same period, returning to its 2022 peak.

Why is the bill rising? The main reason is the rise in crude oil prices. “The monthly average of the Brent crude price in the second quarter of 2026 is 49.

5% higher than the monthly average price of 2025 – a $34 per barrel increase,” Prof. Xiaoyi Mu from the University of Dundee told Euronews Business. He noted that in 2025, around 20 million barrels of oil and oil products per day – approximately 20% of global daily consumption – were exported via the Strait of Hormuz.

“When nearly 20% of world supply is cut, the price must rise to balance the market,” he said. The cost per tonne tells the story. In the second quarter of 2026, the EU paid €750 for each tonne of imported petroleum oil.

That was the second-highest level since 2021, just €2 below the peak recorded in the second quarter of 2022. At the end of 2025, a tonne cost €435. The price rose to €498 in the first quarter of this year before jumping to €750 in the second quarter.

Szymon Kardas, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), emphasised that the war between the US, Israel and Iran had disrupted oil production and supplies to global markets, pushing prices higher. “In some weeks, tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz returns to pre-war levels, only to fall again,” he told Euronews Business. Kardas said such disruptions hit the EU hard because it was 90–95% dependent on oil imports from outside the bloc.

According to Eurostat, this dependence stood at 96. 6% in 2024. Wolfgang Eichhammer, senior expert at the Institute for European Energy and Climate Policy (IEECP), agreed that tensions in the Middle East had the greatest impact, as supplies fell or became less secure.

However, he said strong global demand also played a role, with Europe competing for oil with buyers in Asia, notably China. The chart comparing import value and volume shows how the bill rose while the amount of oil imported remained broadly unchanged. In the second quarter of 2026, the EU spent €82.