According to data from its national statistics office, the country sold 492,895 tonnes of oil products in the first four months of 2026 alone, worth more than €279 million.

That's an increase of almost 922% year-on-year. Georgia's main clients were Togo, Türkiye, and China, but also European markets such as Malta and Monaco.

The official explanation for this jump seems straightforward. Georgia imports crude oil – primarily from Russia – which is then processed domestically and re-exported. Central to this process is the new Kulevi oil refinery, located on the Black Sea coast.

However, some experts argue that the refinery’s realistic processing capacity cannot match the scale of reported exports.

“It is impossible to process 115,000 tonnes within two months while there is no visible activity at the plant, no workforce operating at scale, and no functioning production cycle,” Roman Gotsiridze, former president of the National Bank of Georgia and former opposition member of parliament, told The European Correspondent.

He suggests that refined petroleum products are being transported to the Kulevi terminal by vessels associated with Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” before being re-exported under Georgian origin.

There have been independent reports of Russian tankers arriving at Georgian ports. The EU, eager to enforce strict sanctions on Russia and avoid indirect Russian exports, is paying attention.

The Georgian government and the terminal’s operator, the Azerbaijani state-owned company SOCAR, said that it was complying with EU sanctions.

In a letter to the Georgian government in March, the EU acknowledged its cooperation, including the decision to deny entry to EU-sanctioned vessels following talks with the European Commission.

However, the Commission also included a warning: “Your commitment to prevent circumvention of EU sanctions through the territory of Georgia will be monitored closely going forward, and we stand ready to act if necessary to ensure that our sanctions are not undermined.”