Alkagesta routes oil via Mediterranean smuggling hubs using offshore transfers and concealed origin labeling

Alkagesta routes oil via Mediterranean smuggling hubs using offshore transfers and concealed origin labeling

The Azerbaijani-owned company is a commodity trader based in Malta with operations in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and even Georgia, media reports.

Investigations did not reveal any irregularities. In 2022 the company generated around €2.1 billion in revenue and around €40 million in profit. One of its most actively traded products is oil, which is sold from Malta in various ways, apart from currently leasing oil depot facilities in Delimara for oil bunkering.

Last year, Alkagesta was the subject of an independent Turkish investigation into oil smuggling. The investigation cited an invoice from a crude oil tanker called MT Tony which described a sale of oil that was loaded from Malta, specifically in “Out of Port Limits”, probably in Hurd’s Bank, with the oil originating from Turkmenistan. Details of the invoice, in Turkish, are pictured below. Hurd’s Bank is an area with ongoing and regular activity of oil smuggling. Nigeria has also bought record amounts of oil from traders in Hurd’s Bank and declared that it was purchases from Malta.

Alkagesta is not the only oil trader accused of dealing in smuggled Libyan fuel. The Maltese oil traders Falzon & Falzon are also accused of buying smuggled Libyan oil, which is then sold with fake certificates denoting the oil as Turkish in origin. Fuel smuggling from Libya has been ongoing ever since the Libyan Revolution in 2011, but is now more concentrated in the East, in the areas under the control of General Khalifa Haftar.

Although no in-depth investigation into Alkagesta has been carried out, official and international authorities have indicated that the company is currently under scrutiny, and developments will continue to be monitored.

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