The Turkish terminal helping disguised Russian oil reach Europe

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Nestled among the orange groves of Turkey’s southern coast stands an unlikely staging post for Moscow’s energy sales, a site from where disguised Russian fuels are shipped to European buyers — and allegedly even the US military.

For most of its existence, the Dörtyol terminal, based in the Hatay province devastated in last year’s earthquake, had been a relatively sleepy business, focused on exporting Iraqi crude that arrived at the facility by truck.

But after Russia’s full-blown invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, that all changed. Between March and June the terminal received just three shipments of oil by sea, from Israel, Egypt and Greece, according to ship tracking data from Kpler. 

Then from July of that year, as the first western restrictions on Russian trade began to take effect, seaborne oil deliveries to Dörtyol soared, the data shows — underlining how Vladimir Putin’s war has redrawn global energy flows, creating opportunities for countries and companies still able to trade with Moscow.

Most of the oil arriving at the terminal by sea is refined fuel from Russia and much of that has then been shipped to Europe, in contravention of EU sanctions, experts who have reviewed the data said.