Page 50 - bne monthly magazine June 2024 Russian Despair Index

50 I Southeast Europe bne June 2024
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Turkey simply relabels Russian oil products and exports them to Europe, research indicates
bne IntelliNews
More evidence that Turkey simply relabels Russian oil products and re-exports them to Europe as Turkish emerges from a new study by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD).
“Turkey, the world’s largest buyer
of Russian refined oil products, has emerged as a strategic pitstop for Russian fuel products rerouted to the EU, likely generating hundreds of millions in tax revenues for the Kremlin’s war chest,” said Martin Vladimirov, senior energy analyst at CSD and co-author of the report.
The report reveals that from the point the EU/G7 Russian petroleum products ban took effect on February 5 last year to the end of February this year, the EU
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has imported €3bn of oil products from three Turkish ports. The trio of ports— Ceyhan, Marmara Ereglisi and Mersin have no refining hubs and in the period analysed imported 86% of their oil products from Russia.
Turkey’s big role as an importer and re-exporter of Russian crude and oil products came more into focus in January last year when US senators claimed that “masked Russian oil” supplied via mid-sized Turkish oil trans-shipment terminal Dortyol even ended up in US warships after being processed at a Greek refinery.
Turkey’s imports of Russian oil have in fact grown almost fivefold over the last decade and in 2023, Turkey became the world’s biggest buyer of Russian oil products, importing 18% of Russia’s
total exports of oil products. It has increased its reliance on Russia for the supply of seaborne refined oil products, mainly diesel, gasoil and jet fuel from 52% in 2022 to 72% in 2023, according to CREA and CSD.
Said CREA: “Investigations carried out by CREA and CSD of specific shipments suggest that European entities may have imported Russian oil products mixed or re-exported from oil storage terminals in Turkey.
“Loose EU legislation, combined with
a lack of stringent enforcement, means that EU/G7 countries’ imports may
still contain significant volumes of oil products of Russian origin — especially for their imports coming from Turkey that has not implemented sanctions [on Moscow].”