Oil in Turkey



Oil supplies over a quarter of Turkey's energy. Because the country produces very little oil, it is almost completely dependent on imports of oil and oil products such as petrol and diesel, over half of which is consumed in the country's road vehicles. Turkey is the world's largest user of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for road transport.

Because Turkey produces only 7% of the oil it consumes, the country's total imports are worth more than its exports, which is a problem for its economy. After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, several European countries stopped buying Russian oil, petrol and diesel but Turkey's relations with Russia are such that it supplies most such imports.

Demand


During the 2010s, demand for oil considerably increased, mainly due to increased use of diesel, and is forecast to slowly increase until 2040. Over half of Turkey's imported oil and oil products are used for road transport, and Turkey is the world's largest user of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for road transport. It is hoped the locally manufactured electric cars and other road vehicles from the country's automotive industry will eventually reduce the import bill. In 2021, Turkey's consumption of diesel—both domestic and export—was over six times that of petrol.

Health and environmental impact


Fossil-fuelled road-vehicle exhaust emissions pollute large cities with nitrogen dioxide and other gasses. Air pollution from diesel is worse than that from petrol.

the Black Sea is not an emission control area; air pollution is emitted from ships in Turkish Black Sea ports. Maritime incidents in the Turkish Straits have resulted in oil spills. Air pollution from ships burning heavy fuel oil near cities is a problem in some places, such as Mersin.

Oil production in Russia causes methane leaks into the atmosphere. Because the international greenhouse gas inventory standard is production-based, this is accounted for in Russia's greenhouse gas emissions rather than those of Turkey.

Transport


The Kirkuk–Ceyhan oil pipeline has a capacity of 1.6 million barrels a day (mbd). Russian and Caspian oil is transported by ship through the Bosporus. In 2005, an oil-spill response law was passed in Turkey, and in 2022, oil-tanker insurance was made compulsory. As well as drillships, there are two seismic ships.

Turkey's oil imports from Russia increased after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The European Union (EU) has banned direct imports of oil products from Russia since 2023. , Turkey consumes large quantities of cheap Russian diesel, which may be freeing up diesel from Turkish refineries to be exported to the EU. Oil tankers from Novorossiysk deliver to Korfez and Aliağa, near Turkey's third-biggest city İzmir. In October 2022, almost half of Russia's Black Sea crude was sent to Turkey but it was unclear whether the EU oil price cap would affect Turkey. Some Russian oil goes through Dörtyol terminal in Hatay. Most Russian diesel exports go to Turkey because the EU has sanctioned such imports.

There is a port at Aliağa called Nemrut Bay. The Kirkuk–Ceyhan oil pipeline has a capacity of 1.6 mbd and the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline 1 mbd. Most exports from the petroleum industry in Azerbaijan transit Turkey because their light oil fetches a premium price on the world market. A small amount is shipped to the BTC pipeline from Kazakhstan. In 2024 protesters against the war in Gaza called for transit of crude and refined products to Israel to be stopped.

Processing and storage


Turkey's largest oil refiner is Tüpraş with four refineries. The newest refinery is Star Aegean, which is also in Aliağa and has over half the market for petroleum products. Turkish oil's sulfur content is generally high so refineries are being upgraded to meet Mediterranean shipping sulfur limits, which may be cut from 0.5% to 0.1%, possibly in 2025. Together, the five refineries have a capacity of over 400 million tons a year (815,000 mbd) as of 2022. Although refineries prefer to produce diesel rather than jet fuel, half of the country's diesel has to be imported.

Retail and consumption
There is a biennial trade fair in Istanbul. In 2022, 28 billion litres of diesel and 4 billion litres of petrol were sold in Turkey. Seventy percent of cars registered in 2022 were petrol, 18% diesel and 9% hybrid; and of cars on the road that year, 37% were diesel, 35% LPG and 27% petrol. In mid 2023 the retail price of a litre of petrol was 24 lira (a tad under 1 USD at that time so slightly less than the USA price ) and diesel cost slightly less. The government says that it varies the special consumption tax to try and smooth out retail price variations due to oil price and exchange rate fluctuations.

Jet fuel cost the equivalent of 55 US cents a litre at that time. Over one hundred thousand barrels of jet fuel are sold in a typical year. Less bunker fuel was sold in 2022, because of the decline in shipping due the war in Ukraine.

Economics
According to some analysts, the cost of imported oil and gas is a key weakness in the economy of Turkey. Turkey buys Urals crude from Russia because it is cheaper than oil from other countries. Russian oil is refined and the refined products are sold abroad.

Subsidies and taxes


In Turkey, tax levied on diesel is lower than that on petrol, and it has been suggested by the Istanbul International Centre for Energy and Climate at Sabancı University that taxes on diesel and petrol should be more-closely aligned with each other to minimise imports, because Turkey has enough petrol-refining capacity.

In 2022 the Turkish Energy Minister said Turkey and Algeria would create a joint oil-and-gas-exploration company.

Geopolitics
In 2019, the European Council objected to the Turkish drilling activities in the eastern Mediterranean.

Unlike several European countries, which stopped buying oil and gas from Russia or were cut off after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, relations with Russia are such Turkey continues to buy both commodities from Russia. Turkey can consume discounted Russian diesel, and also buys discounted Russian crude, which it refines and sells legally as Turkish at the global price. For example, Shell and Vitol are claimed to have done this with SOCAR and Tüpraş, although there is no proof the purchased products were refined from Russian crude. Crude from different countries is often blended at refineries so as of 2023, it is not possible to tell where a barrel of diesel originated from; NGO Global Witness said the EU should ban products from refineries that refine Russian crude.

It is sometimes difficult for media in Turkey to fully report on energy geopolitics. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in 2022 Turkey could not join sanctions on Russia because of import dependency. TPAO hopes to explore for oil and gas in Libyan waters, and a memorandum of understanding has been agreed with the Libyan government.

The two main political parties in Northern Iraq the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) would have to agree for a new pipeline to take the shortest route because oil would come from wells in the PUK-controlled area and pass through a KDP-controlled area. In 2022, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps struck to stop a new pipeline.

In 2023, the International Court of Arbitration ruled Turkey could not import from Iraqi Kurdistan without the consent of the Iraqi central government. Sales from Iraq have been affected by discounted Russian crude.

Reducing fossil fuel share of energy
Turkey intends to increase the share of renewables and nuclear power in the national energy mix. According to a May 2022 report from think tank Ember, wind power and solar power saved Turkey seven billion dollars on gas imports in the preceding 12 months. It is hoped further electrification, of sectors such as road transport will reduce Turkey's dependency on imported oil.

History
During the early 20th century, the Ottoman Empire granted a concession allowing William Knox D'Arcy to explore oil fields in its territories which, after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, became the modern countries Turkey and Iraq. In 1912, D'Arcy and other European partners founded the Turkish Petroleum Company, which was later renamed the Iraq Petroleum Company.

In late Ottoman times, permission to explore for oil in the İskenderun area was granted to the Grand Vizier Kamil Pasha and later to Ahmet Necati Bey. With the fall of the Ottoman Empire, oil and gas fields in Mosul vilayet—of which Kirkuk was a part—were lost and since then, Turkey has had to rely on imports. In 1926, the Turkish government took over oil exploration rights. In 2001 natural gas was legally separated from oil. The General Directorate of Mineral Research and Exploration was formed. The first oil imports from Russia arrived in 1986 and from Azerbaijan in 2007.

Between 2000 and 2020, Turkey's share of imported energy increased from just over 50% to 70%. In 2022, Turkey's oil consumption decreased due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting travel restrictions. Also in 2022, Middle Eastern crude imports were displaced by imports of discounted Russian crude, which tripled in the period from before the Ukraine invasion to 1 January 2023.