In the first half of 2025, Taiwan became the world’s leading importer of Russian naphtha, a petroleum distillate used in the production of gasoline and solvents. According to a joint investigation by several organizations — the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, the Environmental Rights Foundation, Ecodefense, and Urgewald — Taiwan then sells refined products made from Russian naphtha to customers from Western countries whose governments support sanctions against Russia’s extractive industry.
While the state-owned companies Taipower and Chinese Petroleum Corporation and the private Taiwan Cement Corporation managed to phase out purchases of Russian energy resources by 2024, the private Formosa Petrochemical Corporation increased its imports from Russia and now buys more than 90 percent of all Russian naphtha shipped to Taiwan. This makes the company the world’s largest known buyer of Russian naphtha.
Ninety-six percent of all Russian naphtha imported to Taiwan is delivered through the port of Mailiao, where Formosa Petrochemical operates three refineries that use Russian naphtha as feedstock. Their output — ortho-xylene, para-xylene, aniline, and other chemicals — is supplied to countries that enforce sanctions on Russian petroleum products. Analysts counted at least 20 ships transporting $150 million worth of Russian naphtha derivatives from Mailiao to Europe throughout the period that the sanctions have been in effect. Formosa Petrochemical also trades with partners in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom.