A Turkish terminal can send disguised Rosneft to the US military

From a Turkish terminal, Russian oil is sent to buyers in Europe and, probably, even to the American military.

Disguised Russian oil is shipped from the Turkish terminal Dörtyol, enkorr reports with reference to an FT investigation.

Previously, the terminal, located in Hatay province, specialized in the export of Iraqi crude oil, which was brought in by trucks.

But after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, from March to June, the terminal received only three shipments of oil by sea – from Israel, Egypt and Greece.

In July 2022, the first Western restrictions on Russian trade came into effect. Since then, seaborne oil shipments to Dörtyol have increased dramatically.

Most of the oil arriving at the terminal by sea is refined fuel from the Russian Federation. A significant part of it is sent to Europe, despite EU sanctions.

The owner of the Dörtyol terminal – Global Terminal Services AS (Istanbul) – stated that it operates as an “independent storage terminal” and does not participate in trade. The company said it had “neither the authority nor the responsibility” to monitor the oil’s final destination.

In January-November 2023, products of Iraqi origin accounted for slightly more than half of the 3.2 million tons of oil shipped from the terminal. The rest (about 10.5 million barrels – 1.5 million tons) arrived by sea, and 9.2 million barrels of them (almost 90%) came from the Russian Federation.

Dörtyol traditionally received a small amount of oil from Russia, but supplies increased after the start of the Russian full-scale war against Ukraine. Dörtyol received 583,870 barrels (approximately 87,000 tons) of Russian oil by sea in 2021, and 3.7 million barrels (approximately 513,000 tons) in 2022. This represents 38% and 67% of all marine cargo unloaded at the terminal in these years.

The terminal denied these figures and stated that Russian deliveries accounted for a fifth of “total loading activity” in 2022 and 10% in 2023, i.e. about 300,000 tons in each year.

But the discrepancy between the volumes of oil brought to Dörtyol by tankers from the Russian Federation and the deliveries recorded by the terminal indicate false information about the origin of the cargo, provided by one of the terminal’s customers.

USM previously reported that Russia neglects the safety of its own vessels and crews in order to increase oil exports. Now the ports of the Russian Federation work during strong storms, because the terrorist country has relaxed the restrictions for ships in winter.

It will be recalled that five tankers with unsold Russian oil have been idle in the Baltic Sea for at least a week.