Turkey will ignore G7 sanctions against Russian oil

Alexey Belogoryev, Deputy Principal Director on Energy Studies of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to Vestnik Kavkaza on whether Turkey could join the Limit Price Coalition for Russian oil and oil products.

As Alexey Belogoryev noted, Turkey is one of the largest consumers of Russian oil. “Turkey ranks third among non-European countries in terms of imports of Russian oil after China and India. After the imposition of sanctions related to the transportation of oil from the Russian Federation, Turkey, together with China, will become a priority market, since the transportation route for them is the shortest. It is necessary to use much less tankers than for deliveries to South Asia. It is difficult to predict the specific volumes of deliveries to Turkey under the new conditions, since Turkish buyers will be able to resell part of this oil to other markets. It is about half a million barrels a day," he said.

“Russian companies will inevitably face a shortage of tankers after December 5, because our own fleet still covers about a seventh of all deliveries, and foreign companies will be prohibited from transporting our oil. Now, of course, the process of buying and chartering those vessels that are ready to take risks falling under sanctions is underway, but this is a rather lengthy process. Here, importing countries, in particular China, cannot help us due to the fact that their and our ships differ greatly in carrying capacity. Not every ship can enter Russian ports, the largest are not intended for Russian ports. Therefore, Turkey, where it is much easier to transport oil, will become an even higher priority than before the sanctions," Alexey Belogoryev emphasized.