Turkey’s largest oil refiner Tüpraş will temporarily stop production at its 220,000-bpd İzmir refinery as efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic destroys fuel demand, the company said in its filing to the stock exchange. The production halt will start on May 5 and complete on July 1, the filing showed. Tüpraş operates four refineries with a combined processing capacity of 30 million tons/year.
The company also holds more than 50% of Turkey’s petroleum products storage capacity of about 44,000 barrels. A local media reported that Tüpraş’ storage tanks filled up after the oil price crash in early March. The Turkish government imposed international travel restrictions to curb the disease. Turkish Airlines has suspended all passenger flights until the end of this month.
