The Pentagon signed contracts worth about $1 billion with the Greek Motor Oil Hellas refinery, which allegedly provides fuel from various types of oil for the needs of the US Department of Defense. This was reported by washington post.
According to the publication, some of this fuel is produced from Russian oil coming to Greece via Turkey. According to The Post, the Turkish hub has received 5.4 million barrels of fuel by sea since February 2022, 1.9 million of which came from Russia. Since EU sanctions came into force in February, Russian supplies to Dortoil have reached 2.7 million barrels; This accounts for more than 69% of the fuel oil shipped to Dortoil by sea during this period.
The Post also reported that since February, Dortoil has shipped a total of 7 million barrels of fuel oil, of which 4.2 million barrels went to Hellas Motor Oil. These shipments accounted for at least 56% of the Greek refinery’s total fuel receipts by sea.
Experts note that, given the practice of mixing oil products at Dortoil, the supply of Russian fuel to the Pentagon is guaranteed. “I don’t see any possible outcome other than Russian fuel going to Hellas Motor Oil,” RBN Energy analyst Robert Auers said.
At the same time, sanctions prohibit the Greek refinery from purchasing Russian oil products. Defense officials said they could not trace the origin of the fuel in the shipments and relied on supplier statements. The publication notes that numerous institutions and companies have the right to compile them and that there is no central system to verify their authenticity.
Experts believe the Pentagon is actually encouraging sanctions violations if it uses Russian oil products. Turkey and Greece do not officially violate the restrictions, but according to analysts they do not carefully check fuel certificates of origin.
Before that, the US Treasury is investigating Case of violation of sanctions on oil from Russia.