Turkey Is Strengthening Its Energy Ties With Russia

Certainly, the economy is desperately in need of improvement. Inflation has surged past 80 percent, seriously denting the president’s popularity and endangering his bid for re-election next year. Turkey is also heavily dependent on foreign energy, importing 93 percent of its oil and 99 percent of its gas, according to the International Energy Agency, a situation that widened its trade deficit and increased its debt load.

As bad as the economy is, though, it would be worse without Turkey’s energy trade with Russia, and the money that it brings in.

Turkey is not participating in any embargo of Russian energy, and as a result has been able to buy Russia’s deeply discounted oil. The benefits are twofold. Turkey, which has huge refining capacity, is buying record levels of cut-rate Russian crude, refining it on its own shores and then legally labeling the finished product as Turkish in origin and selling it at the global market rate. At the same time, it is buying discounted Russian diesel fuel for domestic use.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/09/business/turkey-erdogan-energy-russia.html