Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/LONDON: Shell company and energy trader Vitol have been accused of prolonging the war in Ukraine by exploiting a “loophole” in the European Union (EU) sanction regime to bring products derived from Russian oil into European countries through Turkiye.
According to the Guardian, the economic adviser Oleg Ustenko to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, urged the energy companies to commit to a deadline to halt the trade of “Russian-origin oil products” to decrease Vladimir Putin’s war coffers, the Guardian can reveal.
The EU implemented restrictions on importing seaborne Russian crude oil on 5 December, the same day as a G7 price cap on Russian seaborne exports, and the ban was extended on 5 February to refined products such as fuel oil and diesel.
Refineries in Turkiye and India have increased their imports from Russia since the war started and have been accused of providing a back door for Russian oil exports to be refined and exported around the globe.
Analysis of data from commodity tracker Kpler by the non-profit group world Witness found that Shell had imported more than 600,000 barrels of refined products into the Netherlands from Turkiye refineries known to import Russian oil since 5 December 2022.
While it cann’t be proved whether the products were derived from Russian crude, Turkiya refineries are importing massive quantities from Russia, which can then be immediately refined and blended with crude from other countries.
The world Witness study showed that in 2022 Turkiya imported 143m barrels of crude from Russia, a 50% increase from 2021. On Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, one refinery dominated that trade – Star in Aliaga. The refinery is owned by the Turkiya division of Azerbaijan’s state oil firm Socar. It took more than 60m barrels of crude oil from Russia in 2022, 73 percent of its imports.
The Aliaga and Izmit refineries, owned by Tüpraş, the largest refinery company in Turkey, handled Russian-origin crude.
Vitol energy trader
Vitol, the globe’s largest independent energy trader, sourced 2.77m barrels from the Izmit and Star refineries for delivery to Latvia, Cyprus, and the Netherlands since the start of the Russia/Ukraine war, the analysis found.
Shell has announced its intent to withdraw from its “involvement in all Russian hydrocarbons” last March, shortly after the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
