Turkey's Largest Oil Transporter Refused To Work With Russian Federation
- 3.12.2025, 11:25
After a tanker was blown up in the Black Sea.
Turkish shipping company Besiktas Shipping, which owns the Mersin tanker damaged off the coast of Senegal, said it would cease all operations with Russia due to ultra-high safety risks.
It was reported by Reuters.
Last week, the oil tanker Mersin suffered four external explosions while it was anchored near Dakar. The explosions severely damaged the vessel, the cause of the blasts is not yet clear.
A few days after the Mersin incident, its owner, Besiktas Shipping said it was halting all voyages to and from Russia. There will be no operations with Russian cargoes and customers as the risks are too great.
"The security situation in the region has escalated significantly. After a thorough assessment, we have concluded that the risks to our vessels and crew have become unacceptable ... As the safety of our personnel and assets is our highest priority, we are ceasing all such operations," it said.
Besiktas Shipping, headquartered in Istanbul, is one of the largest tanker owners in Turkey. It has 29 tankers in its fleet and its vessels have repeatedly carried cargoes of Russian oil.
But the cost of shipping cargo across the Black Sea has risen after attacks on two tankers bound for a Russian port, and rising threats and potential strikes have led to higher war risk insurance rates.
On November 28, a fire broke out on two tankers in the Black Sea, near the Bosporus, which belong to Russia's so-called "shadow fleet." And already on November 29, RBC-Ukraine sources said that SBU Sea Baby maritime drones had successfully struck two sub-sanctioned tankers Kairo and Virat in the Black Sea.
On December 2, a small tanker Midvolga 2, which was carrying sunflower oil from Russia to Georgia, was attacked in the Black Sea, about 80 miles off the northern coast of Turkey. But in this case, it was clearly a provocation by the Russian regime: Ukraine immediately denied involvement in the attack.