Turkey knows where its interests lie: why millions of barrels of oil are stuck in the straits

Yekaterina Maksimova

“Turkey is not a friend, relations are strained. If there is an opportunity to somehow make money on our problems, the Turks do not miss this. Now they will twist Russia's arms in every possible way”, - said Rustam Tankayev.

According to Bloomberg, since December 5, when Russian oil came under an embargo and ship insurance conditions changed, at least 20 oil tankers with 18 million barrels have been stuck in the Bosporus and Dardanelles. Tankayev noted that the plans of the Turkish side related to the creation of a new insurance company, this is "a way to get money out of Russia".

“The Turks really said that they are ready to create such a company, this is a more complex version of the corruption mechanism. These are extortion for services that no one needs”, - Tankayev emphasizes. He assessed Turkey's actions as "unethical" and added: "Unfortunately, nothing else can be expected from the Turks".

On December 5, EU countries stopped buying Russian oil. The mechanism for establishing a price ceiling ($60 per barrel) for offshore deliveries of Russian oil to third countries also came into force. The restriction implies that companies from countries that have agreed on sanctions against Russia cannot be provided with technical assistance in the transportation of black gold if the price exceeds the “ceiling”. But most importantly, there are also bans on brokerage and insurance services for the supply of Russian oil by sea. Namely, Western companies, primarily British, monopolized the marine insurance market.

Restrictions on sea transportation do not apply if the purchase price does not exceed $60 per barrel. An exception until 2024 is made for Bulgaria, and until 2023 the price ceiling does not apply to supplies to Japan from the Sakhalin-2 project.