Iran becomes Turkey's new biggest crude oil exporter

By Muhsin Baris Tiryakioglu

ANKARA

Turkey has seen a massive increase of 142 percent in its crude oil imports from Iran in the first seven months of 2017, compared to the same period last year, according to data gathered from Turkish energy watchdog's monthly report published late September.

Turkey imported 7.4 million tons in the first seven months of 2017 compared to 3 million in the January-July 2016 period, show the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) data.

Iraq was the biggest crude oil exporter to Turkey in last three years, however in the January to July 2017 period, Iraq's crude oil exports to Turkey decreased 20.5 percent from 5.4 million tons to 4.3 million tons.

Turkey imported 24.9 million tons of crude oil in total from mainly five countries including Iraq, Iran, Russia, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Last year, Turkey's oil imports from these five countries represented 96.6 percent of the country's total crude oil imports. Iraq supplied 9.2 million tons, Iran with 6.9 million tons, Russia with 3.2 million tons, Kuwait with 2.5 million tons and Saudi Arabia with 2.1 million tons.

In the January-June period of 2017, Turkey's crude oil imports increased from 13.1 million tons to 14.5 million tons, in comparison to the same period of 2016.

In this period, Iraq's share decreased from 41.5 percent to 29.7 percent among the five biggest crude oil exporters to Turkey.

However, Iran, with 7.4 million tons of crude oil exports to Turkey, increased its share from 23.3 percent to 50.9 percent, among the top five crude oil exporting countries to Turkey.