Turkey's Tupras cuts refinery runs due to weak demand
Turkish refiner Tupras has cut runs at its Izmir refinery by 50% due to weak fuel demand because of the coronavirus outbreak, four trading sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Tupras has also cut runs at its Izmit refinery by 20% and its Kirikkale refinery by 50%, the sources said.
Tupras started to cut refinery runs around the middle of March, two of the sources said, 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,” a trader in the Mediterranean oil market said.
Tupras did not respond to a request for a comment. (Reporting by Olga Yagova and Gleb Gorodyankin in Moscow and Julia Payne in London; Additional reporting by Can Sezer in Istanbul; Editing by David Clarke)
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