New evidence reveals oil shipments from Turkey to Israel continue despite embargo
New research suggests that crude oil shipments from Turkey to Israel have continued despite Ankara’s imposition of a trade embargo in May over its Israeli actions in Gaza.
Shipping data and satellite imagery compiled by researchers from the Stop Fuelling Genocide campaign, supported by Progressive International, indicates that a tanker shipped crude oil directly from Turkey’s Ceyhan port to a pipeline near Ashkelon in Israel.
The port is the last stop on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, which transports 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.
On 10 November, amid global protests against Turkey’s role in facilitating the shipments, the country’s energy minister denied that any oil tankers bound for Israel had left Ceyhan port since Ankara began its trade embargo.
But the new research suggests that a crude oil tanker onboarded Azeri crude at Ceyhan in late October and then turned off its tracking signal, only reappearing several days later in Sicily. Using satellite imagery, the researchers were able to track the boat docking at an oil terminal near Ashkelon, Israel.
Read more: New evidence reveals oil shipments from Turkey to Israel continue despite embargo
