Turkey Slashes Russian Oil Imports as Africa Buys More

The tightening of sanctions pressure by the US has begun to significantly reshape the geography of Russian diesel fuel exports. Turkey, traditionally considered its largest importer, has sharply reduced its purchases, while African countries—Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, and Libya—on the contrary, have begun to increase their import volumes.

As reported by RBC, citing data from the Center for Price Indices (CPI), in October 2025, African countries for the first time surpassed Turkey in terms of Russian diesel fuel import volumes. Supplies to Africa increased by 21% month-on-month and an impressive 85% year-on-year, reaching 938,000 tons. At the same time, diesel fuel shipments to Turkish ports decreased by 19% month-on-month and 40% year-on-year last month, amounting to 762,000 tons.

This trend is not limited to diesel fuel alone. Turkey, which is the third-largest buyer of Russian oil after China and India, brought its purchases of Russian oil to zero last week. According to the Center for Price Indices, no oil deliveries were made in the week from November 3 to 9, which happened for the first time since the beginning of the year. For comparison, in the week from October 27 to November 2, the average daily export of Russian oil to the Turkish market had decreased to 26,000 tons per day. Interestingly, for the entire month of October, oil supplies from Russia to Turkey had slightly increased, from 62,000 tons per day in September to 67,000 tons per day.

This reorientation of trade flows shows that Russian energy companies are forced to actively seek new markets to bypass Western restrictions and maintain export volumes, making Africa one of the key directions.