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<h1 class="gmail-">Israel is not isolated: A global web of oil
and complicity</h1>
<p class="gmail-">Across continents, the occupation state's
energy lifelines are sustained by a network of enabling
powers, feeding its war machine across West Asia</p>
<div class="gmail-another-name">
<p><a href="https://thecradle.co/authors/erman-cete-58"
style="color:rgb(164,4,4)" moz-do-not-send="true">Erman
Çete</a></p>
</div>
<div class="gmail-another-name" style="margin-top:16px">
<p><span style="color:rgb(84,88,94)">AUG 28, 2025 - </span><font
size="1"><a
href="https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-is-not-isolated-a-global-web-of-oil-and-complicity"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-is-not-isolated-a-global-web-of-oil-and-complicity</a></font></p>
</div>
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<div class="gmail-inner-article-img"><img
src="https://thecradle-main.oss-eu-central-1.aliyuncs.com/public/articles/5741b1b8-8422-11f0-8e5a-00163e02c055.jpeg"
alt="" width="395" height="187" style="margin-right: 0px;"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span>Photo Credit: The Cradle</span></div>
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<p style="margin-left:0cm">About 100 kilometers east of
Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, lies the
Azeri\u2013Chirag\u2013Deepwater Gunashli (ACG) oilfield, the
largest in the Caspian basin's Azerbaijani sector.
Operated by BP Exploration Limited, it feeds directly
into the infamous Baku\u2013Tiflis\u2013Ceyhan (<a
href="https://thecradle.co/articles-id/25327"
moz-do-not-send="true">BTC</a>) Pipeline. </p>
<p style="margin-left:0cm">South of Baku, at the
Sangachal terminal, oil and gas are stored before
being exported. According to BP, around 106 million
barrels of oil and condensate passed through Sangachal
in the <a
href="https://www.bp.com/en_az/azerbaijan/home/news/business-updates/2025-first-half-results.html?"
moz-do-not-send="true">first half of this year</a>,
primarily via the BTC Pipeline.</p>
<p style="margin-left:0cm">From there, oil crosses
Azerbaijan and Georgia, enters Turkiye, and finally
reaches the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the
Mediterranean. As authors James Marriott and Mika
Minio-Paluello explain in \u2018The Oil Road: Journeys from
the Caspian Sea to the City of London\u2019 (2012), the oil
takes two primary paths from Ceyhan: one to the
Italian port of Miggia via the Greek Islands, the
other south along the Levantine coast to the Suez
Canal.</p>
<p style="margin-left:0cm"><strong>Pipeline to genocide</strong></p>
<p style="margin-left:0cm">After that, oil and gas
inexplicably find their way to fund the Israeli
occupation state\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza. The profits
enrich bankers in the City of London and British
Petroleum shareholders. Everyone wins \u2013 except the
Palestinians.</p>
<p style="margin-left:0cm">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\u2019s
state-owned energy giant SOCAR, one of Israel\u2019s key
energy partners, is also Turkiye\u2019s <a
href="https://turkishminute.com/2025/01/06/socar-to-invest-7-billion-in-turkish-energy-sector-amid-criticism-of-oil-trade-with-israel/"
moz-do-not-send="true">largest foreign investor</a>,
as confirmed by SOCAR Turkiye CEO Elchin Ibadov.</p>
<p style="margin-left:0cm">The BTC Pipeline\u2019s legal
foundation is anchored in two key agreements. The more
consequential of the two comprises Host Government
Agreements signed between BP's BTC Consortium and each
transit country. These contracts essentially <a
href="https://t.co/CuCp7M3SyP"
moz-do-not-send="true">override</a> national
sovereignty.</p>
<p style="margin-left:0cm">Article 2 of the
Intergovernmental Agreement illustrates this starkly: </p>
<blockquote>
<p style="margin-left:0cm">\u201cEach State declares and
guarantees that it is not a party to, or is not
legally bound to apply or comply with, any internal
law or regulation, or any international agreement or
treaty, that is inconsistent with, undermines, or
impedes this Agreement, or that adversely affects or
restricts the State\u2019s ability to enter into or
implement this Agreement or other relevant Project
Agreements.\u201d</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="margin-left:0cm">Even after the devastating
earthquakes that shook south-eastern Turkey in 2023,
it was BP who declared <a
href="https://www.enerjigunlugu.net/bp-ceyhandan-btc-petrolu-sevkiyati-icin-mucbir-sebep-ilan-etti-52815h.htm"
moz-do-not-send="true">force majeure</a> for the
Ceyhan Terminal in Adana, where Azerbaijani oil is
shipped.</p>
<p style="margin-left:0cm">This effectively prioritized
oil exports over local disaster relief. A BP
spokesperson in Baku confirmed the declaration, which
allowed the company to bypass contractual obligations.</p>
<img
style="aspect-ratio: 2766 / 1370; margin-right: 25px;"
src="https://thecradle-main.oss-eu-central-1.aliyuncs.com/public/articles_media/40e09390-8421-11f0-ae3b-00163e02c055.jpeg"
width="395" height="196" moz-do-not-send="true"><sup>A
map showing the Baku\u2013Tiflis\u2013Ceyhan (BTC)Pipeline
route. </sup>
<p style="margin-left:0cm"><strong>Beyond Baku: The
global complicity network</strong></p>
<p style="margin-left:0cm">Yet focusing solely on
Azerbaijan and the BTC Pipeline obscures the bigger
picture: The occupation state is deeply <a
href="https://thecradle.co/articles/gulf-backed-genocide-how-arab-monarchies-fuel-israels-war-machine"
moz-do-not-send="true">embedded</a> in the global
energy trade, both as importer and exporter.</p>
<p style="margin-left:0cm">Investor-owned and private
oil companies are complicit. According to last year\u2019s
report by <a
href="https://oilchange.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/behind-the-barrel-august-2024-v3.pdf?u"
moz-do-not-send="true">Oil Change International</a>,
these firms collectively supply 66 percent of Israel\u2019s
oil, with 35 percent of that share coming from six
major international oil companies \u2013 BP, Chevron, Eni,
ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies \u2013 between October
2023 and July 2024.</p>
<p style="margin-left:0cm">Over the same period,
Kazakhstan supplied 22 percent of Israeli crude.
African nations \u2013 notably Gabon, Nigeria, and Congo \u2013
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 <a
href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/brazilian-oil-trade-unions-urge-government-impose-oil-embargo-israel"
moz-do-not-send="true">joint letter</a> to the
president that 2.7 million barrels of crude had been
exported to Israel that year.</p>
<p style="margin-left:0cm">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. </p>
<p style="margin-left:0cm">Cyprus has additionally
provided transshipment services. Meanwhile, Russian <a
href="https://johnmenadue.com/post/2024/04/who-is-supplying-israel-with-the-oil-it-needs/"
moz-do-not-send="true">vacuum gas oil</a> (VGO)
continues to flow into Haifa\u2019s refineries. One major
source remains Kazakhstan's CPC Blend crude, exported
<a
href="https://www.spglobal.com/commodity-insights/en/news-research/latest-news/crude-oil/101823-opec-plays-down-irans-call-for-oil-embargo-on-israel-after-hospital-blast"
moz-do-not-send="true">via</a> Russia\u2019s Black Sea
port of <span
style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(31,31,31)">Novorossiysk</span>.</p>
<p style="margin-left:0cm">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 (<a
href="https://www.iea.org/countries/israel/energy-mix"
moz-do-not-send="true">IEA</a>), with the top
suppliers being BRICS nations. Colombia provides 50\u201360
percent of the coal. Russia and South Africa follow
closely despite their condemnations of Israel and
South Africa\u2019s International Court of Justice (ICJ)
genocide case. The US and China round out the top
five.</p>
<p style="margin-left:0cm"><a
href="https://thecradle.co/articles/the-enemy-within-arab-states-that-trade-with-israel"
moz-do-not-send="true">Arab and Muslim countries</a>
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 <a
href="https://oilchange.org/news/new-research-exposes-countries-and-companies-supplying-the-oil-fueling-palestinian-genocide/"
moz-do-not-send="true">Saudi Arabia</a>, the UAE,
Iraq, and Egypt. In 2020, Israel\u2019s Europe\u2013Asia
Pipeline Co. signed a transport <a
href="https://www.spglobal.com/commodity-insights/en/news-research/latest-news/crude-oil/102020-israeli-pipeline-company-to-transport-uae-oil-via-red-sea-med-network"
moz-do-not-send="true">agreement</a> with UAE firm
RED Land Bridge Ltd., deepening the ties between Gulf
states and Tel Aviv. </p>
<p style="margin-left:0cm"><strong>Leviathan's bounty
and Arab betrayal</strong></p>
<p style="margin-left:0cm">Perhaps the most scandalous
development is that Israel itself has become an energy
source.</p>
<p style="margin-left:0cm">In August 2025, Egypt <a
href="https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-signs-largest-ever-gas-export-deal-with-egypt-worth-35bn"
moz-do-not-send="true">signed</a> a record-breaking
$35-billion gas deal with Tel Aviv, nearly tripling
its gas imports from the Leviathan offshore fields \u2013
the largest export agreement in Israeli \u2018history.\u2019
NewMed Energy, an Israeli company, anticipates
transporting 130 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas to
Egypt by 2040.</p>
<p style="margin-left:0cm">Natural gas exports to Egypt
and Jordan rose 13.4 percent in 2024, despite
rhetorical condemnations from Arab leaders. Energy
Minister Eli Cohen <a
href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/israeli-natural-gas-exports-egypt-jordan-up-134-2024-2025-03-05/"
moz-do-not-send="true">lauded</a> the figures,
claiming they prove Israel\u2019s energy sector is a
\u201cstrategic asset\u201d and key to \u201cregional stability.\u201d</p>
<p style="margin-left:0cm"><i>Reuters</i> also noted
that \u201cIsrael is positioning itself as a regional
energy hub and has committed to supplying natural gas
to Europe, which has been diversifying away from
Russia since its invasion of Ukraine.\u201d</p>
<p style="margin-left:0cm">Last year, the Leviathan
field produced 11.33 bcm of gas, generating $282
million in revenue. The nearby <a
href="https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-to-expand-gas-exports-to-egypt"
moz-do-not-send="true">Tamar</a> field earned $232
million from 10.09 bcm. Total gas production rose 8.3
percent, with royalties climbing nearly 11 percent to
$704.5 million. State revenues from gas are projected
to hit $1.4 billion this year, doubling within a few
years.</p>
<p style="margin-left:0cm"><strong>The masquerade of
embargoes</strong></p>
<p>On 21 August, <i>Reuters</i> <a
href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/turkish-ports-raise-new-barriers-israel-linked-ships-sources-say-2025-08-21/"
moz-do-not-send="true">reported</a> that Turkiye
informed its port authorities that ships linked to
Israel would be barred from docking. The new
requirement insists that guarantee letters confirm no
Israeli ties or military cargo on board.</p>
<p>Ankara claims to have halted trade with Israel post-7
October. But the <a
href="https://thecradle.co/articles/how-turkiye-bypasses-its-own-israel-trade-ban-via-greece"
moz-do-not-send="true">reality</a> 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.</p>
<p>Russian Telegram channel Dva Mayora <a
href="https://t.me/dva_majors/78077"
moz-do-not-send="true">exposed</a> Greek tankers
Seavigour and Kimolos for involvement in these covert
routes in 2025. As of 22 August, the Marshall
Islands-flagged Nissos Antimilos was seen 190
kilometers west of Haifa, fresh from Ceyhan and
awaiting an Israeli tanker for offshore transfer.</p>
<p>Arab and Muslim-majority states, it seems, prefer
performative outrage over substantive action. Their
duplicity ensures that, while Tel Aviv drops bombs on
Gaza, the oil fueling its war machine flows
uninterrupted.</p>
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