Europe’s energy pivot

Europe is reworking its energy map in real time, with a repaired oil pipeline and a €90 billion Ukraine loan moving together this week. (reuters.com) Russian oil resumed through the Ukrainian section of the Druzhba pipeline on April 22 after a stoppage that had lasted since late January, according to Reuters and officials in Hungary and Slovakia. EU envoys then moved toward final approval of a €90 billion loan package for Ukraine that Budapest had been blocking. (reuters.com) (apnews.com) The immediate pressure point is narrow but concrete: Hungary and Slovakia still depend on that pipeline for Russian crude, and both governments tied the repair dispute to wider European negotiations. Slovak Economy Minister Denisa Sakova said supplies were expected to resume early on April 23, while Hungarian oil group MOL said Ukraine had notified it that transit was ready to restart. (reuters.com) That leaves Europe holding two energy realities at once. The European Commission says the bloc cut Russia’s share of its gas imports from 45% before the war to 12% in 2025, while Russian oil imports fell from 27% in early 2022 to 2%, with only two European Union countries still importing Russian oil. (ec.europa.eu) The replacement system is expensive and uneven. Eurostat said the United States supplied 56.0% of the European Union’s imported liquefied natural gas in 2025, Russia still supplied 13.9%, and Norway provided 52.1% of the bloc’s pipeline gas imports. (ec.europa.eu) Europe’s vulnerability now runs less through a single Russian supplier than through shipping lanes, liquefied gas cargoes and weather. The European Investment Bank said renewables generated about half of European Union electricity in 2024 and 2025, but Europe still entered 2026 reliant on imported liquefied natural gas after a relatively cold winter. (eib.org) That is why ceasefire headlines now hit energy markets so quickly. Euronews reported on April 10 that the temporary United States-Iran ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz were already being treated in Brussels as a direct energy-security issue because the truce remained fragile. (euronews.com) The older routes have not disappeared from politics either. Politico reported in March 2025 that Russian officials were openly discussing reviving Nord Stream as ceasefire talks advanced, even as many European governments opposed reopening the Baltic link. (politico.eu) So Europe’s energy pivot is not a clean break from one fuel or one supplier. It is a live negotiation between damaged pipelines, liquefied gas terminals, sanctions law and wars that can still move prices in a day. (ec.europa.eu) (reuters.com)