In the first half of 2025, Taiwan emerged as the world’s leading buyer of Russian naphtha - a petroleum distillate used to produce gasoline and solvents. Refined products made from that naphtha are then sold to countries in Western Europe that support sanctions on Russia’s extractive industry. The findings come from a joint investigation by several environmental groups: the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), Environmental Rights Foundation, Ecodefense and Urgewald.
While state-owned Taipower and CPC Corporation, as well as private Taiwan Cement Corporation, managed to end purchases of Russian energy by 2024, privately held Formosa Petrochemical Corporation moved in the opposite direction, increasing imports from Russia. It now buys more than 90% of all Russian naphtha shipped to Taiwan, making it the largest known buyer of Russian naphtha in the world.
Ninety-six percent of Taiwan’s Russian naphtha imports enter through the port of Mailiao, home to three Formosa Petrochemical refineries that use Russian naphtha as feedstock. Their output — o-xylene, p-xylene, aniline and other chemicals — is shipped to countries that have sanctions in place on Russian oil products. Analysts counted at least 20 vessels that carried derivatives of Russian naphtha worth more than $150 million from Mailiao to Europe during the sanctions period. Formosa Petrochemical also trades with Australian, U.S. and U.K. counterparties.
Seventy-two percent of Taiwan’s Russian naphtha is supplied by Novatek, which is under U.S. sanctions and, the report says, directly finances the war in Ukraine. Eighty-eight percent of seaborne Russian naphtha deliveries to Taiwan are carried by tankers registered or insured in countries that support the G7 price cap on Russian oil and petroleum products, which also applies to naphtha; however, since December 2023 the price of Russian naphtha has not fallen below the cap. In addition, 12% of Russian naphtha bound for Taiwan is transported by the “shadow fleet,” raising risks of accidents and oil-product spills at sea due to the poor condition of those tankers.
According to the investigators’ calculations, in the first half of 2025 Russia shipped $1.3 billion worth of naphtha to Taiwan. Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Taiwan’s naphtha imports have generated an estimated $1.7 billion in tax revenue for the Russian budget. The total value of Russian minerals purchased by Taiwan during the war is $11.2 billion, while Taiwan’s military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine over the same period is estimated at $50 million.
