Volume of crude oil imports to Italy 2023, by country of origin

In 2023, Azerbaijan exported roughly 11 million tons of crude oil to Italy, establishing itself as the major crude oil supplier for the country. The African country of Libya, the United States, and the middle eastern country of Iraq followed. Once a leading fossil fuel importer to Italy, Russia did not import any oil to Italy in 2023.

Italy's dependency on imported fossil fuels

In general, the volume of crude oil imported to Italy decreased over time. However, a new increase has been observed since 2020, showing that the country is still highly dependent on imports of fossil fuels. The petroleum dependency rate in Italy was over 94 percent in 2021, while the natural gas dependency rate was almost 96 percent.

Major fossil fuels suppliers to Italy

While crude oil was mainly imported from Azerbaijan and Libya, Algeria and Azerbaijan were the leading suppliers of natural gas to Italy in 2023. In comparison, Qatar was the leading country for liquefied natural gas imports to Italy in 2022. The global price of crude oil increased during the energy crisis in 2022, and Italy’s national expenditure on this fossil fuel peaked to roughly 33 billion euros.