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Türkiye has reportedly sharply reduced its imports of Russia’s flagship Urals crude oil in November, according to a report on Monday, citing shipping data as Western sanctions on Russian energy suppliers tightened and Turkish refineries shifted to alternative grades.
Shipments of Urals to Türkiye fell by 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) from October levels, with total imports dropping to around 200,000 bpd last month, a Reuters report indicated, citing data from Kpler and LSEG.
Türkiye has become one of the largest buyers of Russian crude since 2022, when European buyers mostly halted purchases, ranking since then as the second biggest buyer after India among seaborne importers of Urals, Russia’s main export grade, LSEG data shows.
The decline comes as U.S. sanctions on Russian majors Lukoil and Rosneft have narrowed the pool of suppliers Turkish refiners can deal with.
In addition, the European Union’s planned ban on the purchase of fuel produced from Russian oil, set to take effect at the end of January 2026, is prompting Turkish companies to diversify their feedstock.
As Urals shipments fell, Türkiye is said to have boosted imports of alternative crude grades, including Kazakhstan’s CPC Blend and KEBCO, and Iraq’s Basrah, according to the Kpler data.
CPC Blend, though loaded from Russia’s port of Yuzhnaya Ozereyevka, is mostly produced by Kazakh companies. The Kazakh volume is exempt from Western energy sanctions and limitations regarding Russian oil.
In November, Türkiye imported 105,000 bpd of Kazakhstan’s CPC Blend, the highest level of such imports since February 2024, Kpler data showed. It also imported some volumes of Russian-origin CPC Blend in 2025, but has stopped since September.
In June, Turkish Urals oil imports reached a multimonth high of nearly 400,000 bpd, according to Kpler. However, Turkish refineries’ ability to make alternative purchases is limited, as the supply of crude similar in quality to Urals on the Mediterranean market is low.
On the other hand, the situation with CPC Blend deliveries to Türkiye could be complicated by a recent attack on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal.
Separately on Monday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak was quoted by Tass as saying that Russian gas giant Gazprom was in talks with Turkish partners regarding the possible extension of gas contracts.
Last month, a report by Bloomberg News, citing people familiar with the matter, suggested that Ankara and Moscow were negotiating the renewal of two major pipeline supply deals.
The contracts between Russia’s firm and the Turkish state-run BOTAŞ for combined deliveries of as much as 21.75 billion cubic meters (bcm) a year are set to expire on Dec. 31, the report also said.
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said last week that Russia “has always been a reliable natural gas supplier for us.”
“Russian gas will continue to be an important source for Türkiye,” he added.
Turkish authorities have also denied claims that Türkiye’s recent liquefied natural gas (LNG) deal with the U.S. would mean an end to Russian gas imports, underscoring the country’s procurement of pipeline gas and LNG from multiple sources.
