Made fundamental changes energy crisis in trade relations between European countries, a change in the role of some of them and the transformation of some into energy exporting countries. In this regard, Sweden is currently the first country in Europe in energy exports after successive problems with France’s nuclear reactors.

Sweden exported 33 terawatt-hours to other countries last year, according to the European Network of Electricity Transmission Systems (Entso-E) analyzed by energy data company Rystad Energy AS. Although this volume of energy exports puts it in first place in Europe, it was not alone. The UK also became an electricity exporting country for the first time in its history, followed by Spain and the Netherlands. The events are related to the shocks caused by Moscow in the electricity trade in Europe, which has sharply reduced the flow of natural gas to the Old Continent. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has exacerbated the energy crisis, pushing Europe into a concerted effort to phase out Russian hydrocarbons.

The timing was extremely unfortunate for Europe, as it coincided with a series of problems at French nuclear reactors that led to long shutdowns and forced the country to import electricity. The situation has so far been greatly facilitated by the systems connecting the national electrical networks of European countries, which also form a protective barrier to prevent power outages. Commenting on this, Fabian Ronningen, an electricity market analyst at Rystad, said that “2022 has been a reality check for many countries as all these hypothetical scenarios that people have been thinking about the power outage situation in France have been discarded.”

Problems in the electricity market have fatally raised concerns about how secure electricity transmission infrastructures are and the need to interconnect networks across the EU. According to Lisa Fisher, program manager for climate-neutral energy systems at the E3G think tank, “Like all large-scale infrastructure, they are vulnerable to either physical deterioration or cyberattacks.” However, she emphasizes that the more interconnected EU networks are, the greater the scope for limiting risks. In the meantime, EE is calling on its 27 member states to ensure that by 2030 they can transfer 15% of the electricity they generate to neighboring countries. According to Lisa Fischer, “roughly in the middle of the EU member states is on track to achieve this goal.”

Britain, Spain and the Netherlands became energy exporters for the first time, while France was forced to import due to problems at its nuclear reactors.

At the same time, however, the EU ban. on the import of Russian oil and the ceiling of $60 per barrel that the G7 countries decided to impose on Russian oil, begins to significantly limit Russia’s income from hydrocarbon exports. According to a corresponding report from the Finnish research institute CREA, in the first month of the implementation of the two Western measures, they cost Moscow about 160 million euros a day. The CREA report concludes that Western retaliatory actions are responsible for a 17% drop in Russia’s hydrocarbon export revenues in the last month of 2022.

G7 member countries together with EU countries On December 5, Australia decided to cap the price of Russian oil at $60 per barrel, along with a ban on the import of Russian offshore oil. The two measures have so far been the most drastic steps taken by groups of countries to cut Russia’s fossil fuel revenues that fund its war in Ukraine.

However, energy analysts have expressed doubts about how the restriction could affect Russian oil prices, as Moscow has the ability to divert its oil to Asian countries such as China, India and Turkey. For its part, Russia retaliated against the West late last month when it banned the sale of Russian oil to G7 price cap countries.