Turkey is showing signs of diversifying its crude supplies — including importing Brazilian oil — after its largest refiner moved to restrict purchases of Russian barrels in the wake of sweeping U.S. sanctions.
Of the roughly 650,000 barrels a day of crude that Turkey imported so far this month, just 19% is from Russia, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from analytics firm Vortexa Ltd. That’s down from a share of more than 50% for the whole of last year.
It also appears to be tapping new suppliers. Refiner Turkiye Petrol Rafinerileri AS, better known as Tupras, bought a cargo of medium sweet crude from Brazil, which is currently being shipped by the tanker Joao Candido, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified. That would be Turkey’s first crude import from the nation in government data going back to 2007.
The shift is among the latest signs of disruption to Russian oil supply chains, after wide-ranging sanctions imposed by the Biden administration in January. From late February, Tupras planned to stop accepting shipments of Russian oil that didn’t comply with a Group of Seven price cap, Bloomberg reported last month. The company has also said that it stopped buying Russia’s flagship Urals grade.
Brazil’s state-controlled oil company Petrobras sold a 950,000-barrel cargo of Itapu oil, with a sulfur content of 0.25%, for delivery to Turkey in early April, the company said in a statement.
Tupras didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Turkey’s only other refiner is Azerbaijan’s state energy company Socar, which accounted for 29% of Turkey’s crude imports last year, according to data from Turkey’s national energy regulator. It’s not clear how much of that was Russian. Socar didn’t respond to requests for comment.
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Jack Wittels, Lucia Kassai, and Prejula Prem, Bloomberg News
--With assistance from Patrick Sykes and Sherry Su.
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
