The European Union’s anti-fraud office, Olaf, has opened an investigation into a loophole that allows countries like Turkey to export Russian oil to Europe, oil that should instead be banned due to sanctions against Moscow for invasion of Ukraine. This was revealed by Politico, which cites people familiar with the matter.
The scheme is possible thanks to a clause in Brussels’ sanctions that allows “blended” fuels to enter the EU if labeled as non-Russian. The loophole has so far reportedly generated up to three billion euros for Moscow from three Turkish ports alone in the 12 months following the imposition of EU sanctions on Russian oil imports in February 2023.
The complaint
A few months ago the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea) and the Center for the Study of Democracy (Csd) published a study which stated that Ankara was helping the Kremlin to protect its trade in fossil fuels, which constitutes nearly half of its budget and is critical to meeting the costs of invading Ukraine. In practice, the hydrocarbons of the country led by Vladimir Putin would be transported to Turkish ports, where they would then be transferred to local ships and then resold as if they were Turkish.
According to the research centers, from the entry into force of Moscow’s oil sanctions on February 5, 2023 until the end of February 2024, the EU imported 5.16 million tonnes of petroleum products worth 3.1 billion of euros from three Turkish ports without refining hubs, Ceyhan, Marmara Ereğlisi and Mersin.
The makeup
According to the complaint by the two think tanks, in May 2023 alone, the Toros Ceyhan oil terminal in the Turkish port of Ceyhan received 26,923 tons of diesel fuel from Novorossiysk in Russia. And just ten days after the import, the terminal would have shipped a similar volume of diesel to the Moh refinery in Corinth in Greece. In 2023, Turkey became the world’s largest buyer of Russian oil products and imported 18% of Moscow’s total exports.
So Russia continues to sell oil to Europe, thanks to Türkiye
Ankara’s import boom followed an emerging global trend that sees countries that have not imposed sanctions such as India and China increasing purchases, taking advantage of the Federation’s availability of hydrocarbons at lower prices, with the Kremlin desperate to new markets.
But in Türkiye, a crucial difference has been the rise of refined oil products rather than crude oil. In the same period, 11% (13 million tonnes) of the EU’s total imports of petroleum products came from Turkey: a 107% increase in volume compared to the previous year, the study highlights.
