Turkey is the largest buyer of Russian oil products, such as diesel and fuel oil, and is one of the largest buyers of Russian crude oil after China and India.
In February 2023, when the EU banned the transportation of oil products from Russian ports into the bloc, oil tankers shifted their direction to Turkey.
Before the sanctions took effect, the oil storage in Mersin, Turkey of Turkis Enerji enterprise had almost no ships entering or leaving. A few days after the sanctions took effect, this storage received the first shipment from Russia in 5 years, according to data from the ship tracking company Kpler.
This year, Turkis Enerji received nearly 6.5 million barrels of oil products, mainly diesel, of which 5.5 million barrels came from Russia, worth about 500 million USD.
This facility exported 4.4 million barrels of oil to the EU during that time, more than 4 times the amount of oil imported from non-Russian sources. This means that export shipments to the EU are very likely to contain Russian products.
Russian refineries have exported about 50 billion USD of diesel and other fuels to Turkey since the sanctions took effect. According to the Center for Research on Clean Energy and Air (CREA), a Russian energy flow monitoring organization, this export accounted for about 10% of Russia's oil revenue and 7% of Russia's total energy revenue during that time.
According to CREA's analysis, shipments from Turkish warehouses to the EU have more than doubled, reaching about 24 billion USD in the same period.
A warehouse in the Sea of Marmara owned by Turkish oil distributor Opet is currently the busiest trading point in the world for Russian refined oil products in terms of shipments, according to Kpler data. About 10 billion USD of Russian refined oil fuel has passed through this warehouse since the sanctions began and many of the main customers of this warehouse are EU-based companies.
European anti-fraud investigators have reviewed trade data, but have not been able to prove that Russian fuel entered the network of Turkish warehouses is being transported to the EU. Therefore, the implementation of sanctions has become difficult.
Officials said that Turkey does not allow in-depth investigation into the flow of products through its warehouses.
Targeting ports will make the implementation of sanctions easier, but this move risks facing reactions from Turkey - a NATO member state.
One of Europe's strongest energy sanctions is expected to affect Russia on January 21, 2026 when the ban on importing refined Russian crude oil products from other countries, mainly India, China and Turkey, takes effect.
However, analysts believe that tougher measures may be needed to significantly reduce Russia's global oil demand, including banning the import of diesel and other fuels from Turkey.
