Turkey's crude oil imports increased 78.30 percent to hit 2.3 million tons in February 2019, compared to the same month last year, according to a report released by the country's energy watchdog Friday.

Turkey's overall imports of oil products increased 22.6 percent in February to 3.4 million tons compared to February 2018, Turkey's Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA) said.

The output of oil refinery products in the same month increased 65.8 percent to reach 2.5 million tons. In addition, diesel and gasoline production was up 83 percent and 41 percent, reaching nearly 849,000 tons and 431,000 thousand tons, respectively.

In February, total fuel sales rose by 2.7 percent to 2 million tons compared to the same month last year. Iraq ranked first among Turkey's oil suppliers by exporting 528,983 tons of oil in February.

Russia was the top second source of Turkish oil imports with 459,524 tons and was followed by Kazakhstan that sold 366,311 tons of oil to Turkey.

Iran, whose oil industry is under U.S. sanctions, exported 349,837 tons of oil to Turkey. Last year in the same month, Iran was the top supplier of Turkey's oil imports with 643,294 tons of oil. Therefore, imports from Iran recorded a dramatic 54 percent fall in February, compared to the same month of last year.

Turkey's import waivers from the U.S. ended on May 2 and the U.S. on April 23 decided not to extend the waivers in order to reduce Iran's oil exports to zero.