New evidence discloses ‘routine’ oil shipments from Turkey to Israel

In November, the Stop Fuelling Genocide campaign released evidence that suggested that the “Seavigour” tanker shipped crude oil from Turkey’s Ceyhan port to a pipeline near Ashkelon in Israel.

The port is the last stop on the BP-owned Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, which transports Azeri crude oil from Azerbaijan. The oil is then shipped from the Heydar Aliyev Terminal at Ceyhan to Israel, accounting for almost 30 percent of its crude oil imports.

The researchers have since tracked 10 journeys made in the past year by the “Kimolos” tanker between Ceyhan and Ashkelon, with eight of them occurring after Turkey announced its embargo in May.

Despite the ship turning off its tracking signal for several days in the Eastern Mediterranean to mask its route, the researchers managed to identify it as docking in Israel 10 times using satellite imagery.

Port logs for the Kimolos reveal that on a typical trip to Israel, the tanker is registered as being bound for Egypt, leaving with a full load of oil. But the tanker does not dock in Egypt, instead “disappearing” for a few days in the Eastern Mediterranean.

This strategy follows a similar pattern to that of the Seavigour, which also turned off its location transponder and reappeared in Sicily days later.

Both the Kimolos and the Seavigour are Suezmax size vessels, which are chartered specifically for crude oil shipments.

Citing official state export records, the researchers announced Azerbaijan has exported 1.3 million tonnes of crude oil to Israel per month since the start of its war on Gaza in October 2023.

As both the Kimolos and the Seavigour can transport approximately 140,000 metric tonnes, an export of 1.3 million tonnes of crude oil would require an average of eight to 10 trips a month.

“Not only is this transfer of crude oil violating the economic embargo, but the rate and frequency of the refuelling is actively sustaining war crimes,” the researchers said, adding that the crude oil exports are refined to fuel F-35 fighter jets used by Israel in Gaza.

An investigative report by Energy Embargo for Palestine documenting how crude oil supplied to Israel by the BTC pipeline is refined into fighter jet fuel suggested that Turkey could be viewed as violating the duty to prevent genocide by the International Court of Justice if it rules that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

A researcher at the Stop Fuelling Genocide campaign said the findings were evidence of “a systematised trade of crude oil shipped from Turkish ports to Israel”.

“We warned that our previous evidence was only the tip of the iceberg,” the researcher noted.

The Turkish energy ministry has repeatedly denied that any oil tankers bound for Israel have left Ceyhan since May, stating that “companies transporting oil through the BTC pipeline for export to global markets from Haydar Aliyev Terminal have respected Turkiye’s recent decision not to engage in trade with Israel”.

The campaign said the new revelations constitute a “second and more serious exposure” of the ministry’s claims.

Azerbaijan’s oil exports to Israel increased four-fold since the beginning of this year, ballooning from 523,554 tonnes in January to 2,372,248 tonnes in September.

Middle East Eye previously reported that the advocacy group Oil Change International, which authored a report tracking oil shipments to Israel up until July 2024, said its data sources showed multiple shipments from Ceyhan since May.

A Turkish official previously told MEE that BP sells oil to intermediary companies, which Ankara cannot control, and tankers pick up the oil “without declaring their final destination”.

The revelations come after Ankara announced in November that it was severing all ties with Israel.