According to Reuters insiders, Turkey's largest oil refineries are being forced to buy more and more non-Russian oil amid tightening sanctions against Russia, primarily American ones.
Points of attention
- Ankara's decision to decrease reliance on Russian oil showcases the success of Western sanctions in influencing global oil trade dynamics.
- Turkey's move to diversify its oil sources away from Russia demonstrates the changing landscape of oil partnerships amid geopolitical tensions.
Russia is losing another market for oil sales
Journalists point out that Turkey is a major buyer of Russian oil, on par with China and India.
However, the situation is currently developing in such a way that Ankara is forced to refuse the services of the Russian Federation, as is India.
Experts believe that recent events indicate that Western sanctions are indeed having an effect.
Thus, according to insiders, one of the largest Turkish refineries, SOCAR Turkey Aegean Refinery (STAR), has purchased four tankers of crude oil from Iraq, Kazakhstan, and other non-Russian sources, with arrival in December.
Journalists have already calculated that this is a total of 77-129 thousand barrels per day of non-Russian supplies, depending on the size of the batches, and also means a smaller share of Russian oil in STAR processing.
This is a truly telling fact, because in September and October, Russian oil accounted for almost the entire volume of STAR's processing — about 210,000 barrels per day.
Another large Turkish processor, Tupras, is increasing purchases of non-Russian varieties similar in quality to Urals, such as Iraqi ones.
