While President Donald Trump was urging countries to stop buying Russian oil, Azerbaijan moved against Adnan Ahmadzada of Alkagesta, signaling to the world that it was cracking down on one of its major traffickers of Russian and illicit oil. This was also before President Ilham Aliyev made amends with Vladimir Putin after Putin apologised to him for Russia’s accidental downing of an Azerbaijani commercial plane in December 2024.
Despite the fact that the authorities of Azerbaijan made a show with Adnan Ahmadzada, its state-oil and gas company, SOCAR, has extensive deals and trades ongoing with Russian energy and gas companies. These deals have not been suspended despite EU sanctions and the commercial plane incident. Most notably, SOCAR, process Russian crude-oil and its large oil-refinery in the Turkish port of Aliaga in Izmir. The refinery, called Star, opened in 2018 and is still taking in Russian crude despite being sanctioned by the EU.
Turkey’s oil-refinery imports of Russian crude remain unchanged with Turkish-flagged oil-tankers having a very active participation in the delivery of this oil, but EU shippers are also be involved as seen with the example below, with the oil-tanker Paros, owned by Cypriot businessman, John Fredriksen, that is currently unloading oil procured from Primorsk at the Aliaga port where the Star oil-refinery is located. The ship is owned by Frontline Plc which is indirectly controlled by Hemen Holding Limited (owned by Fredriksen).
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