Turkey increases Russian Urals oil imports by 40% in Oct, LSEG data shows

Turkiye Petrol Rafinerileri AS

29/10/2024 13:48

MOSCOW, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Turkey increased imports of
Russia's flagship Urals crude in October to 7.41 million barrels
(about 1 million metric tons) from 5.15 million in September due
to rising demand and the end of refinery maintenance, LSEG data
and Reuters calculations showed.
    Turkey, one of the major Russian oil offtakers, will buy the
highest Urals volume since July this year after the 214,000
barrels per day STAR refinery owned by Azerbaijan's SOCAR
completed major month-long maintenance on Oct. 23.  
    The STAR refinery has already restarted purchasing Urals for
end-October delivery, two traders involved in Russian oil sales
to Turkey said.
    Refineries of Turkish company Tupras also increased
purchases of Russian oil this month due to fewer alternatives
available in the Mediterranean, the traders said.
    In September, Turkish refineries purchased eight cargoes of
Basrah crude, including Light, Heavy and Medium grades, from
Iraq, according to LSEG. In October Turkey imported only four
cargoes of Basrah Heavy and Basrah Medium, the data shows.
    Turkey's growing interest in Urals comes amid an expected
reduction in oil shipments from Russia in November, which could
support the grade's prices, traders said.
    Russia's oil exports from its western ports - Primorsk,
Ust-Luga and Novorossiisk - will decline to 1.95 million barrels
per day (about 8 million tons) in November from 2.25 million
barrels per day in October amid the end of planned refinery
maintenance.
    India is also expected to increase demand for Russian oil
with delivery in November and December, traders said. Last week,
BPCL, a large buyer of Russian oil, said it had ended
maintenance on its Kochi refinery with a capacity of 6 million
tons per year.

 (Reporting by Reuters; Editing by David Holmes)