With soaring imports mainly from Russia and Iraq, Turkey has managed to compensate for the crude oil loss from the Iranian market since U.S. sanctions kicked in and the waivers ended. Yet, the Urals and Basra grades are not immune to supply security problems
The decision of the U.S. government to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May last year was, to some extent, not surprising for many as U.S. President Donald Trump and his hawkish counselors signaled a hard-line stance against Iran with the goal to thwart its political influence in the region, by squeezing the Tehran regime of its main source of income: energy exports. The reinstallation of sanctions on the Iranian energy sector, however, has left many customers in Asia and Europe with the problem of finding alternative suppliers that come with their own problems.
The decision of the U.S. government to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May last year was, to some extent, not surprising for many as U.S. President Donald Trump and his hawkish counselors signaled a hard-line stance against Iran with the goal to thwart its political influence in the region, by squeezing the Tehran regime of its main source of income: energy exports. The reinstallation of sanctions on the Iranian energy sector, however, has left many customers in Asia and Europe with the problem to find alternative suppliers that come with their own problems.
Turkey has quickly managed to meet its annual demand for nearly 21 million tons of crude oil by ramping up imports primarily from Russia and Iraq in addition to Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia. The problems that Russian and Iraqi suppliers face and the liabilities of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) raise questions over the mid and long-term supply security.
According to data from Turkey’s energy watchdog Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA), Turkey increased oil imports from Iraq in December 2018 and January, when it bought 798,298 tons and 726,115 tons of crude from its southern neighbor, respectively. In November 2018, when the total crude imports were only 1.13 million tons, the country’s top supplier was again Iraq with 321,859 tons. Iraq sold Turkey 528,983 tons of crude in February and 465,338 tons in March.
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Oil imports from Russia were relatively lower than purchases from Iraq and Kazakhstan in January, during which imports were recorded at 2.18 million tons. Russia exported 162,441 tons of Urals grade to Turkey in the first month of the year. In February, Turkish refineries began testing the Ural grade by raising the amount to 459,524 tons and the figure surged to 880,317 tons in March.
Urals grade comes to Turkish refineries
Turkey’s main crude suppliers
The report prepared by Bilkent Universtiy Energy Policy Research Center Director Pof. Hakan Berument, Oil Research Director of Bilkent Universtiy Energy Policy Research Center Serkan Şahin and Global Energy Partners Emin Emrah Danış stressed that the sanctions on the Iranian oil have made Iran’s customers in the Mediterranean vie for the Urals grade, which increased the traffic on the Istanbul and Çanakkale Straits.
The report also showed that it is unlikely that OPEC members are capable of fully compensating for Iranian oil. Saudi oil, which has been increasingly imported to Turkey in the period of December 2018 to March 2019 albeit not enough to compete with Russian and Iraqi crude – has been directed to the Asian market and the Iraqi oil from Basra has been sold to European consumers.
In addition to Tüpraş, other refineries operating in the Aegean province of İzmir by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) in Turkey – Petkim and STAR – also used Russian oil to generate petroleum products, the company’s top officials previously said but did not elaborate.
Speaking of the advantages of the Urals grade to Turkey, Serkan Şahin told Daily Sabah that transporting Russian oil is much less costly than bringing Iranian oil, considering the shorter route it takes. “However,” Şahin cautioned, “The Urals grade receive high demand from Europe and the Mediterranean. There has been a recent hike in the Black Sea port loading of the Urals crude, which climbed over Brent crude while Iranian oil hovers below Brent prices.”
The Russian crude exports to Turkey spiked in February and March as opposed to a slump in April, Şahin said and noted that the Turkish refineries made an experiment on Russian oil to observe its compatibility. The preliminary cargo data, he added, shows that crude imports from Russia continue to rise in May.
Julien Mathonniere, the global crude oil deputy editor at ICIS, also explained in correspondence with Daily Sabah that Russian oil is possibly less expensive for Tüpraş than for other Mediterranean refiners, notably, because the cost associated with moving tankers through Turkish Straits is related to bottlenecks and the expensive demurrage that kicks in when delays lengthen.
“One of Tüpraş’s two largest refineries in İzmir is located on the Sea of Marmara, not on the Mediterranean Aegean like İzmir, which means that cargoes delivering the Urals to İzmit do not go through the Dardanelles. This probably saves Tüpraş a significant amount of time and money, even if cargoes still have to go through the Bosporus. On top of it, İzmit is Tüpraş’s most complex refinery, meaning that they can process a broader variety of crudes, including those with higher sulfur content,” Mathonniere said.
“Around 30% of the crude volumes imported into the OECD [Organization for the Economic Co-operation and Development] Europe come from Russia. But inversely, Russia has also grown dependent on Europe as a crucial market outlet, with nearly 65% of its crude exports shipping to that area, and 75% of its natural gas exports. If Europe stops buying, then it’s a problem for Russia, too,” he said.
Infrastructure, political problems of Iraqi oil
In addition to the issues that need to be settled as far as the Russian oil is concerned, Iraqi crude comes with its own problems. David Jalilvand, CEO of Orient Matters – a Berlin-based Middle East consultancy – pointed out. Iraq has both the capacity and the will to increase production and could thus help Ankara to replace Iranian oil. However, Jalilvand remarked, oil-related quarrels between Baghdad and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) are ongoing.
“On a practical level, infrastructure problems exist as the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline has not been repaired yet following the damage during the Daesh years. Deliveries by truck, meanwhile, would be inefficient in terms of cost,” he explained.
Julien Mathonniere of the ICIS also emphasized that Iraq has been a low-profile producer quietly ramping up production and feeding some medium and heavy sour crude into the global market, helping to relieve some of the current supply tightness.
“The Iraq portion of the Kirkuk to Ceyhan pipeline had been severely damaged after being sabotaged by Daesh terrorists and it has not operated since March 2014. Elsewhere, midstream infrastructure in Iraq has endured several wars and poor maintenance. The only way for neighboring countries like Turkey to boost crude purchases from Iraq would be to boost export capacity in the first place,” he said.
Most of Iraq’s major crude oil pipelines are located in the north and are currently not operable, the ICIS expert noted. “Their rehabilitation would take years and a large investment. A lot of Western oil companies are rather unwilling to return to Iraq and commit capital until the security context has improved,” he added.
Wires reported that Exxon Mobil employees began returning to Iraq’s West Qurna 1 oilfield on Sunday after the company received assurances from Iraqi officials that its staff would receive extra security. The oil field is located in 50 kilometers northwest of Basra province.
“Moreover, when the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline was operating at full capacity with 600,000 to 700,000 barrels of oil per day, the Turkish network would only receive approximately 150,000 barrels via the Ceyhan-Kırıkkale pipeline while the rest used to be exported to the global markets,” Serkan Şahin recalled.
The Iraqi government continues to pressure Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi to push the KRG to deliver the allotted 250,000 barrels of oil per day to the State Organization for Marketing of Oil, per the 2019 federal budget law. Relations between the Iraqi federal government and the KRG had been sourced since September 2017 when the Kurdish community in the north held a referendum on Kurdish regional independence. Baghdad slashed a wide range of sanctions on the Kurdish autonomous government and seized control of the oil-rich Kirkuk province. Oil extraction and pumping from Iraq’s northern Kirkuk province was suspended in October 2017 until Nov. 16, 2018, when Iraq’s federal government and the KRG reached a tentative agreement to resume oil exports from Kirkuk to Ceyhan.
Turkish refineries can accommodate different types of crude
S&P Global Platts reported that earlier before May when the due date of the U.S. waivers on eight largest consumers of Iranian crude expired, producers of heavy and medium-sour crudes including Saudi Arabia, Russia, United Arab Emirates (UEA) and Iraq started to replace Iranian shipments.
Turkish refineries, which are conventionally believed to be operating on heavy Iranian crude, indeed are capable of processing different mixture of crude to reach the optimum level of operation in accordance with the seasonal demands, Şahin explained.
“Turkish refineries are able to change their configurations and operate on oil including different levels of sulfur in accordance with the seasonal demands,” he said.
The annual report from Tüpraş stated that low-sulfur crude oil accounted for 9.3% of total crude procurement last year while heavy and medium-sulfur oil made up 59.3% and 31.4%, respectively. Tüpraş is capable of re-blending lighter oil with its current crude slate. Although the refinery can buy lighter Forties from the North Sea as an alternative to the Urals, it is much costlier compared to heavier grades; Mathonniere said and suggested that CPC Blend, a light grade of crude, would be a better bargain. He also noted that given the giant production volumes at Kazakhstan’s Kashagan field, the CPC grade often sells at a large discount, but Turkish refineries would need to change their crude slates.
