Reuters: Turkey has doubled its imports of Russian oil this year

According to information portal Refinitiv Eikon, Turkey has doubled its imports of Russian oil in 2022.

Reuters writes about it.

According to analysts, Turkey has increased its imports of oil from Russia, including Urals and Siberian Light, to more than 200 000 bpd in 2022, up from just 98 000 bpd in the same period last year.

Turkeyʼs main refiners Tupras and Azerbaijanʼs SOCAR STAR have significantly increased their consumption of Russian Urals and Siberian Light crude this year and cut their purchases of oil from the North Sea, Iraq and West Africa.

This year, Russian oil prices have fallen to historic lows against Brent, while prices for North Sea and Iraqi crudes have risen.

According to data from Refinitiv Eikon, the STAR refinery should purchase about 90 000 barrels of Russian oil during January-August this year. During the same period in 2021, the company bought 48 000 barrels per day. And the Tupras refineries will buy about 111 000 barrels of oil from Russia in January-August 2022, compared to only 45 000 barrels per day in the same period last year.

"The choice for Turkish refiners was obvious because they have no restrictions on buying Russian oil," a trader in the Mediterranean oil market, who declined to be named, told reporters.

He added that the good margin of Urals oil refining contributes to the profits of Turkish refiners.

• Turkey has not imposed sanctions against Russia, saying that it remains dependent on Russian energy sources. During the meeting in Sochi, Russian President, Vladimir Putin and Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, agreed on partial payment of Russian gas in rubles.
• According to The Washington Post, Russia has turned to Turkey for help in circumventing the sanctions imposed against it because of the war in Ukraine. They hope that Turkey will agree to proposals that will help it avoid sanctions restrictions in the banking, energy and industrial sectors. The proposal calls for Erdoganʼs government to allow Russia to buy stakes in Turkish refineries, oil terminals and storage tanks, a move that economists say could help hide the origin of exports after the European Unionʼs oil embargo takes full effect next year.
• Russia is also demanding that several state-owned Turkish banks open correspondent accounts for the largest Russian banks, which economists and sanctions experts say would be a flagrant violation of Western sanctions, and that Russian industrial producers be allowed to operate in free economic zones in Turkey.
• On August 8, the Financial Times newspaper, citing its own sources, wrote that the European Union is discussing the possibility of introducing sanctions against Turkey if it helps Russia circumvent Western restrictions.