Russian energy: Taiwan’s weak link in China conflict? in Oil & Companies News 01/01/2026 Trade data suggests that levels of Russian naphtha, a refined crude oil product, flowing into Taiwan remain steady despite Taipei saying it would reduce volumes. A report published in October by the Helsinki-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) revealed the Asian country had become the world’s biggest importer of the fossil-fuel derivative from Russia. Ciaran Tyler, lead naphtha research analyst at Brussels, Belgium-based commodity data analytics firm Kpler, said Taiwan’s imports of Russian-origin naphtha have not slowed significantly, even though the country has said it would not renew contracts to buy the product. Kpler data shows naphtha volumes from Russia imported by Formosa Petrochemical Corporation — the Taiwanese company almost entirely responsible for the surge in naphtha imports — remained steady in November and December. “Formosa won’t renew buying for new term contracts next year, but fulfilling contracts already set up is something they have not backed away from, seemingly,” he told DW. Tyler expects import volumes to decline rapidly early in 2026, as annual and quarterly contracts expire. Luke Wickenden, one of the co-authors of the CREA report, told DW that he believes Formosa is sincere in its commitment to pull back. The CREA report, written in conjunction with Taiwan’s Environmental Rights Foundation and the exiled Russian environmental group Ecodefense, had revealed that in the first six months of 2025, Taiwanese imports of Russian naphtha surged six times what they were in 2022. Naphtha is needed to make chemicals required for high-tech manufacturing, including semiconductor manufacturing. “It’s essentially a base feedstock for producing all sorts of chemicals that fund its semiconductor industry,” said Wickenden. “It’s an incredibly important chemical.” Taiwan pulls back on naphtha imports The report prompted debate in Taiwan over possible dependence on Russia, with lawmakers arguing that China could leverage the dependence against Taiwan in the future, given the increasingly close ties between Beijing and Moscow. After the report was published, Formosa issued a statement saying that as a private company, it was not restricted from buying Russian naphtha, but that it requires traders and suppliers to “comply with international sanctions.” It claimed that due to “global market conditions,” it had been buying higher shares of Russian naphtha. “This is purely the result of market circumstances, not a deliberate shift in procurement strategy,” the company added. Jheng Ruei-He, a senior analyst at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, a government think tank based in Taipei, said it’s important to see Formosa’s purchases of Russian naphtha in that context. “Based on the spirit of free trade, governments can’t interrupt the commercial behavior of private companies,” he told DW. Taiwan Economy Minister Kung Ming-hsin subsequently told Taiwanese media that Formosa’s contracts for Russian naphtha were soon due to expire and that the company had “agreed not to purchase Russian naphtha in the future.” For CREA’s Wickenden, the case shows how it was possible to put pressure on companies that continue to buy Russian hydrocarbons. “It clearly shows that with coordinated pressure from NGOs and other think tanks, there is an opportunity to make real changes,” he said. Coal also in the mix Although Taiwan has taken