Russia earned up to 3 billion euros from exporting petroleum products to the EU under Turkish labeling - study

THIS MATERIAL (INFORMATION) IS PRODUCED AND DISTRIBUTED BY THE BELL'S FOREIGN AGENT OR CONCERNES THE ACTIVITIES OF THE BELL'S FOREIGN AGENT. 18+

Russia continues to export large volumes of petroleum products to the European Union in circumvention of sanctions, say analysts from the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD). They managed to discover a scheme through which Russia could earn up to 3 billion euros using three Turkish ports.

The European embargo on Russian petroleum products and the price ceiling for them came into effect on February 5, 2023. According to CREA and CSD, in almost a year until the end of February 2024, the EU imported 5.16 million tons worth 3.1 billion euros from three Turkish ports in the cities of Ceyhan, Marmara Ereglisi and Mersin. They do not belong to the oil refining centers in Turkey: 86% of oil products in monetary terms during this period were imported there from Russia. In this regard, researchers believe that European companies could import Russian oil products from Turkey, mixed with others in local terminals.

Politico journalists came to the same conclusion after an independent analysis. They note that the European Union does not prohibit “mixed” supplies if the fuel is labeled as non-Russian.

In total, from the beginning of February 2023 to the end of February 2024, Turkey imported Russian oil products worth 17.6 billion euros. This is 105% more than in the previous similar period. Turkey's fuel exports to the EU simultaneously jumped 107%. Due to the supply of petroleum products to Turkey, the Russian budget was replenished by 5.4 billion euros.

The results do not mean that every shipment that arrives in the EU from Turkey is Russian, the researchers note. The country has plants that can process almost 1 million barrels of oil per day. But the geographic location of several Turkish ports, combined with import and export data, indicates that significant volumes of Russian fuel are "simply repackaged" and moved on, Politico concluded.

The publication named Greece as one of the possible recipient countries of Russian oil under the new Turkish label. The country's customs authorities reported that they "carry out proper checks both at the stage of customs clearance and subsequent ones" and assured that so far "no violations have been found."

• Investigators constantly publish articles about exactly how Russia circumvents restrictions on trade in oil and petroleum products, including through the “shadow fleet.” With the same consistency, proposals appear on how to make it work. So far, sanctions against Russian supplies have not produced the results expected in the West: Russia’s monthly revenues from the export of oil and petroleum products after a year of the price ceiling have become higher than before the invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg wrote .
• One of the developers of the price ceiling concept, former assistant to the head of the US Treasury Department and director of economic research at the Brookings Institution, Ben Harris, spoke about how oil sanctions against Russia work in an interview with The Bell.