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    Erman Çete: Israel is not isolated: A global web of oil and complicity 📂 Archived Message

    Posted by sashimi on August 31, 2025, 10:50 pm

    28 Aug 2025
    https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-is-not-isolated-a-global-web-of-oil-and-complicity

    Lede: Across continents, the occupation state's energy lifelines are sustained
    by a network of enabling powers, feeding its war machine across West Asia

    About 100 kilometers east of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, lies the
    Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli (ACG) oilfield, the largest in the Caspian
    basin's Azerbaijani sector. Operated by BP Exploration Limited, it feeds
    directly into the infamous Baku-Tiflis-Ceyhan (BTC) Pipeline.

    ...

    The BTC Pipeline, stretching nearly 1,800 miles, is a main energy artery for the
    occupation state. It supplies an estimated 40 percent of Tel Aviv's crude oil
    needs, while Israel ranks sixth among importers of Azerbaijani oil. Azerbaijan's
    state-owned energy giant SOCAR, one of Israel's key energy partners, is also
    Turkiye's largest foreign investor, as confirmed by SOCAR Turkiye CEO Elchin
    Ibadov.

    Beyond Baku: The global complicity network
    Yet focusing solely on Azerbaijan and the BTC Pipeline obscures the bigger
    picture: The occupation state is deeply embedded in the global energy trade,
    both as importer and exporter.

    Investor-owned and private oil companies are complicit. According to last year's
    report by Oil Change International, these firms collectively supply 66 percent
    of Israel's oil, with 35 percent of that share coming from six major
    international oil companies - BP, Chevron, Eni, ExxonMobil, Shell, and
    TotalEnergies - between October 2023 and July 2024.

    Over the same period, Kazakhstan supplied 22 percent of Israeli crude. African
    nations - notably Gabon, Nigeria, and Congo - contributed 37 percent. Even
    Brazil, under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (a vocal critic of Tel Aviv)
    continued shipments throughout 2024. In May 2025, Brazilian oil workers' unions
    revealed in a joint letter to the president that 2.7 million barrels of crude
    had been exported to Israel that year.

    Israel also imports refined petroleum products critical for its military
    occupation across Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. Mediterranean states like
    Cyprus, Italy, Greece, and Albania have all shipped fuel, diesel, and naphtha.

    Cyprus has additionally provided transshipment services. Meanwhile, Russian
    vacuum gas oil (VGO) continues to flow into Haifa's refineries. One major source
    remains Kazakhstan's CPC Blend crude, exported via Russia's Black Sea port of
    Novorossiysk.

    Despite its shift toward natural gas, coal still comprised 12.7 percent of Tel
    Aviv's energy supply in 2023, according to the International Energy Agency
    (IEA), with the top suppliers being BRICS nations. Colombia provides 50-60
    percent of the coal. Russia and South Africa follow closely despite their
    condemnations of Israel and South Africa's International Court of Justice (ICJ)
    genocide case. The US and China round out the top five.

    Arab and Muslim countries are no exception. Following 7 October 2023, the
    Saudi-led OPEC bloc rejected Iran's calls for an oil embargo. Tel Aviv continues
    to receive modest but steady crude flows through the Sumed (Suez-Mediterranean)
    Pipeline, transporting oil from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq, and Egypt. In 2020,
    Israel's Europe-Asia Pipeline Co. signed a transport agreement with UAE firm RED
    Land Bridge Ltd., deepening the ties between Gulf states and Tel Aviv.


    Leviathan's bounty and Arab betrayal
    Perhaps the most scandalous development is that Israel itself has become an
    energy source.

    In August 2025, Egypt signed a record-breaking $35-billion gas deal with Tel
    Aviv, nearly tripling its gas imports from the Leviathan offshore fields - the
    largest export agreement in Israeli 'history.' NewMed Energy, an Israeli
    company, anticipates transporting 130 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas to Egypt
    by 2040.

    Natural gas exports to Egypt and Jordan rose 13.4 percent in 2024, despite
    rhetorical condemnations from Arab leaders. Energy Minister Eli Cohen lauded the
    figures, claiming they prove Israel's energy sector is a "strategic asset" and
    key to "regional stability."

    ...

    Ankara claims to have halted trade with Israel post-7 October. But the reality
    suggests otherwise. Tankers frequently disable their tracking systems in the
    eastern Mediterranean, feign destinations in Egypt or elsewhere, and arrange
    deliveries through third-country traders.

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