New research indicates that Turkey has continued to ship crude oil to Israel despite a trade embargo imposed in May over Israel’s actions in Gaza, Middle East Eye reported on Thursday.
Compiled by researchers from the Stop Fuelling Genocide campaign and supported by Progressive International, shipping data and satellite imagery suggest that a tanker loaded oil at Turkey’s southern Ceyhan port and delivered it to a terminal near Ashkelon, Israel.
Ceyhan port serves as the endpoint of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, which transports crude oil from Azerbaijan. The oil shipped from the Heydar Aliyev Terminal at Ceyhan accounts for nearly 30 percent of Israel’s crude oil imports.
On November 10, amid global protests against Turkey’s role in facilitating these shipments, Turkey’s energy minister denied that any oil tankers bound for Israel had departed from Ceyhan since the embargo began.
However, the new research challenges this claim. The Seavigour reportedly loaded Azeri crude at Ceyhan on October 28. Upon reaching the eastern Mediterranean on October 30, the vessel turned off its tracking signal, reappearing seven days later near Sicily. Port logs show that the tanker arrived in Sicily lighter in weight, implying it had offloaded its cargo between the two recorded stops.
Using satellite imagery, researchers identified the Seavigour docking at the EAPC terminal near Ashkelon on November 5.
Felix, a researcher from the Stop Fuelling Genocide campaign, told Middle East Eye that this instance is “only the tip of the iceberg in relation to ongoing trade between Israel and Turkey.” He believes multiple oil tankers have taken similar routes since the embargo was imposed.
Middle East Eye previously reported that the advocacy group Oil Change International has found multiple shipments from Ceyhan to Israel since May. Azerbaijan’s oil exports to Israel have quadrupled since the beginning of the year, rising from 523,554 tons in January to 2,372,248 tons in September.
A Turkish official earlier told Middle East Eye that BP sells oil to intermediary companies beyond Ankara’s control and that tankers pick up oil “without declaring their final destination.”
An investigative report by Energy Embargo for Palestine highlighted how crude oil from the BTC pipeline is refined and used to fuel military equipment in Israel’s war on Gaza. The report noted that if the International Court of Justice determines Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, those involved in the shipments, including Turkey, could be viewed as violating the duty to prevent genocide by supplying fuel to Israel.
“Israel’s genocide in Gaza is predicated on a vast supply chain: arms from the US, reconnaissance flights from the UK, surveillance tech from India, oil from Azerbaijan, and ports across the globe,” Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, co-general coordinator of Progressive International, told Middle East Eye. “Every nation has a legal obligation to prevent genocide, and every fuel shipment that is allowed breaks that obligation.”
This new evidence emerged after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğa claimed that Turkey was cutting all relations with Israel. Earlier this month, Turkey barred Israeli President Isaac Herzog from using its airspace to attend Cop29 in Azerbaijan.