Turkey's largest oil refineries are buying more oil from sources other than Russia in response to the latest Western sanctions against Moscow, said Reuters, citing two informed interlocutors and several industry sources.
Turkey is one of the main buyers of Russian oil, along with China and India. Now, Turkish refineries are taking measures similar to those of are made in India, which indicates the impact of efforts by the United States, European Union, and the United Kingdom to reduce sales of Russian oil, the proceeds of which are used to finance the war against Ukraine.
One of Turkey's largest refineries, Turkey Aegean Refinery (STAR), owned by Azerbaijan's SOCAR, has recently purchased four batches of oil from Iraq, Kazakhstan and other non-Russian producers, which will be delivered in December, sources said.
According to Reuters estimates, this amounts to 77,000 to 129,000 barrels per day of non-Russian supplies, depending on the size of the cargo, and means that SOCAR will use less oil from Russia.
The analytical company Kpler points out that supplies from Russia accounted for almost all of the oil that came to the STAR refinery in October and September, amounting to about 210,000 barrels per day.
Two sources said that one of the four cargoes was a Kazakh shipment of KEBCO grade, which is of the same quality as Russian Urals oil. Previously, the SOCAR plant imported only one shipment of oil from Kazakhstan in 2025 and none in 2024.
