Turkey imports oil mostly from Russia, Iran
Oil import from Russia rose from 84,000 tons to 6.8 million tons in four years. Thus, Russia has become the most important crude supplier for Turkey as well as natural gas.
Iran is the number one country Turkey imports crude oil from. More than half of the 23.5 million-ton crude oil import in 2005 was made from these two countries.
Turkey paid $5.6 billion for the import of 22.2 million tons oil in 2004 and spent $8.6 billion last year.
Its only oil refinery, TUPRAS, announced the figures of crude oil and oil products for 2005.
Accordingly, Turkey imported 23.5 million tons of crude oil in 2005, 6.9 million tons from Iran, 6.8 million from Russia, 4.5 million from Libya and 938,000 from Iraq, 325 tons from Syria, and the remaining 395,000 tons were supplied by other oil producing countries.
Last year, TUPRAS did not import any oil from a former import country for Turkey, Algeria; and decreased the amount of oil purchased from Saudi Arabia.
In the same term, TUPRAS realized a 23.8 million tons oil production of gas, diesel fuel, liquid petroleum gas (LPG) and gas oil, which corresponds to an increase of 1.1 million tons a year.
The company's oil products import in 2005 of 959,000 ton remained the same as in 2004, and its export rose from 3.2 million tons to 4.3 million.
Insufficient stock
Turkey meets its entire need of natural gas from foreign countries as well and has no possibility of storing gas. The same is almost applicable for crude oil. The oil stock is kept in BOTAS Petroleum Pipeline Corporation's pipelines and TUPRAS refineries.
This amount is far from meeting NATO’s three-month need standard. This situation puts Turkey among risky countries against probable oil-gas crises that can take place in international markets and causes it to be instantly affected by price fluctuations.
Russia and Iran have recently been at rocky terms with Western countries. Russia had attracted reaction for reducing the amount of gas it supplies to European countries during and after the crisis it had with Ukraine in natural gas prices.
A tension is also a matter of worries between Iran and the US stemming from Iran's nuclear activities.
Iran's announcement to reduce the oil production upon international reactions the country attracted had caused anxiety in oil markets.
Per barrel of crude price in international markets has started to rise again and surpassed $67 yesterday.
The price per barrel for the US Texan light crude increased by 23 cents and reached $67.06.
Though America increased its oil supply and refined product production, crude oil prices rose due to the concerns in Iran, the second biggest country in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in addition to the concerns due to upscale separatist attacks on reservoirs in Nigeria. Turkey meets 70 percent of its natural gas need from Russia and the rest from Iran, Algeria, and Nigeria.
Turkey stops exporting oil products to Iraq
Turkish firms stopped selling oil products on Saturday to Iraq, which already suffers fuel shortages, due to $1 billion in unpaid debt, CNN Turk channel quoted Foreign Trade Minister Kursad Tuzmen as saying, Reuters reported.
Iraqi state oil marketer SOMO told Turkey on Thursday that the debt would be paid within 15 days. But 34 Turkish firms exporting oil products such as gasoline and liquefied petroleum gas stopped loading oil for Iraq in the Turkish ports of Mersin and Iskenderun.
"Our firms have stopped loading from oil facilities today because no development has been seen on payments and the firms' receivables exceeded $1 billion," Tuzmen said. If Baghdad pays its debt, then the problem will be solved and oil flow into Iraq will resume, he said. In Baghdad the Iraqi Oil Ministry was optimistic the dispute could be settled.
"The oil ministry is working with the government in order to speed up the payment process. There is no problem. It is just a matter of time and the money will be paid," ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said.
"The situation will be solved as soon as possible."
Ankara had set January 21 as the deadline for payment of debts and warned it would stop selling to its crude-rich neighbor.
Iraq imports oil products from Turkey, Iran and Kuwait but it plans to import less because of increased oil refining capacity at home. Fuel shortages, especially of gasoline, have angered Iraqis who already queue up at gasoline stations in Baghdad for hours to get their needs.
Iraq increased state-controlled prices of gasoline and diesel by up to 200 percent on December, angering Iraqis who are used to paying heavily-subsidized prices.
Overdue oil debt reaching $600 million was a problem between Turkey and Iraq last year, but Baghdad paid the debt following calls from Ankara. Turkey's total exports to Iraq stood at $2.8 billion in 2005.