Largest Turkish refiner Tupras ‘has cut runs at Izmir refinery by 50% due to pandemic impact on fuel demand’

Largest Turkish refiner Tupras has reportedly cut runs at its Izmir refinery by 50% due to weak fuel demand brought about by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Four trading sources described the situation to Reuters on March 30.

Tupras has also reduced runs at its Izmit refinery by 20% and its Kirikkale refinery by 50%, they were also cited as saying.

Tupras started to cut refinery runs around the middle of March, two of the sources were further quoted as saying, but it was not clear when exactly the runs were reduced at each refinery.

Tupras is a big consumer of Mediterranean oil grades such as Russian Urals and Siberian Light as well as Kazakhstan’s CPC Blend, which it normally purchases via tenders.

“They’ve cut purchases a lot. There were no buy tenders for over a month now,” said one quoted trader in the Mediterranean oil market.