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Figures by the European Union’s statistics agency, Eurostat, have shown that Ankara resumed importing oil from Tehran in March 2024 nearly four years after it cut shipments to zero to comply with US sanctions on Iran.
Eurostat data cited in a Sunday report by IRNA news agency found that Turkey had imported 576 metric tons (mt) of oil from Iran in March and another 485 mt in April.
Turkey’s last oil shipment from Iran had been reported in August 2020 when the country bowed to US pressure and stopped the imports.
The figures are yet another sign that more countries have stopped complying with US sanctions on Iran and are taking delivery of oil shipments from the country.
Eurostat figures showed that Bulgaria and Poland were the two EU members that had imported oil from Iran this year.
Bulgaria raised its oil imports from Iran in the quarter to March by 113% compared to the same period last year to 314 mt.
Poland’s oil imports from Iran, a first reported in the past two years, was a 19 mt shipment that took place in March.
Georgia, an EU candidate country, imported 544 mt of oil from Iran in the March quarter, down from 974 mt reported in the same quarter last year.
Reports suggest more European countries are willing to ignore US sanctions on Iran and import oil from country now that Tehran is selling record volumes of oil to Asian markets.
Iran’s oil exports reached more than 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd) in some months of this year and in 2023, up from records lows of 0.3 million bpd reported in 2019 when the US toughened its sanctions Tehran.
