U.S. Is Said to Plan Iran Sanctions Waiver for Turkey’s Tupras

(Bloomberg) -- Turkey's largest refiner is expected to get an exemption from the U.S. allowing it to continue to buy crude oil from Iran after additional U.S. sanctions go into effect on Monday, two people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg.

Key Insights

• Tupras Turkiye Petrol Rafinerileri AS, owned by Koc Holding, is the nation's largest oil refiner, and a positive announcement from the U.S. is expected to be made soon, according to one of the people, who asked not to be named before the official announcement later on Friday
• Ankara has already begun lowering purchases from Iran, its neighbor and biggest source of the fuel last year
• Iran accounted for more than a quarter of Turkey's daily average imports of around 830,000 barrels last year, according to data from the market regulator. But it accounted for less than 20 percent of Turkey's purchases as of August
• Tupras has four refineries with a combined crude handling capacity of over 28 million tons per year, according to its website
• Tupras declined to comment
• A senior executive at a Turkish state-run lender, Turkiye Halk Bankasi AS, was convicted in January in the U.S. for participation in a years-long scheme to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran

Analyst View

• Iranian and Iraqi crude combined probably accounted for 65 percent of Tupras feedstock in 2017, Goldman Sachs analyst Geydar Mamedov wrote in an emailed note on Oct. 31, adding that the overall risk to Turkey's crude imports from sanctions is “limited”

Get More

• Read more on U.S. oil sanctions on Iran and the waivers it's likely to grant.

--With assistance from Asli Kandemir, Tugce Ozsoy and Onur Ant.

To contact the reporter on this story: Firat Kozok in Ankara at fkozok@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Benjamin Harvey at bharvey11@bloomberg.net

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