Turkey’s largest refiner, Tupras, has ordered some crude oil cargoes from Nigeria, Kpler’s shipping data has shown, translating to more revenue for the country.
Although Kpler did not state how many cargoes the refinery has ordered, it said the order was for March-April.
The development comes as Nigeria seeks to ramp up crude oil exports to earn enough revenue to execute its 2025 budget..
Nigeria gets about 90 per cent of its revenue from crude oil exports, however, its oil revenue is currently being threatened, as one of its importers, Indonesia, plans to decrease imports from other countries, while increasing imports of crude oil and liquefied petroleum gas from the United States by around $10 billion, as part of its tariff negotiations, Indonesia’s energy minister Bahlil Lahadalia told local media on Tuesday. Crude earnings were set to fund 56% of this year’s budget.
Tupras has also ordered products from other oil-producing countries for March-April, such as Guyana, Libya and Norway, according to Kpler data.
Tupras is the largest refiner in Turkey with two refineries at Izmit and Izmir, which have a combined crude processing capacity of 467,300 bpd, according to LSEG data.
An earlier report by Reuters quoting trading sources and shipping data said Tupras has returned to buying Russian Urals crude cargoes, after it stopped doing so earlier this year due to stronger U.S. sanctions on Moscow.
Reuters said the three sources said Tupras resumed its purchases after prices for Urals crude fell to its lowest levels since 2023, earlier this month, dropping comfortably below a G7 price cap level of $60 a barrel.
The price cap imposed by the Group of Seven countries, the European Union and Australia bans the use of Western maritime services such as insurance, flagging and transportation when tankers carry Russian oil priced at or above $60 a barrel.
Since October, the U.S. Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on multiple tankers suspected of breaching the price cap.
Tupras became one of the biggest importers of Russian crude after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with Russian oil representing 65% of the country’s total oil imports in January-November 2024, according to data from Turkey’s energy regulator.
The company halted purchases of Russian crude in February because of mounting concerns around U.S. sanctions following the extensive package announced on January 10.
Tupras will receive at least two cargoes of Urals for April loading, trading sources with knowledge of the matter said.
One of the cargoes is already on the water, tracking data shows. The Nissos Christiana loaded around 730,000 barrels of Russian Urals crude from the Baltic port of Ust-Luga on April 3, data from global real-time data and analytics provider Kpler showed. It is for delivery to Izmit on April 21, where Tupras operates a 225,800-barrel-per-day capacity oil refinery, the data showed.
It was not immediately clear if any other vessel had been fixed for Tupras’ additional cargo purchase.
Despite calls by Trump to ‘drill baby drill,’ may actually slow activity, adding that world oil demand this year will rise by 730,000.
When it halted Russian purchases, Tupras turned to alternative crude grades, including making its first purchase of Brazilian crude oil last month
