Saudi Arabia makes China the top crude supplier again as Russian oil falls 9%

A crude oil tanker will be unveiled at Qingdao Port, Shandong Province, China on April 21, 2019. REUTERS / Jason Lee / File Photo

BEIJING, March 20 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia re-elected as China’s top raw supplier in the first two months of 2022 after leaping from Russia in December, while Russian shipments fell 9% as cuts in import quotas who led independent refiners. Scale back purchases.

Arrivals of Saudi raw materials were 14.61 million tons in January-February, equivalent to 1.81 million barrels per day (bpd), down from 1.86 million bpd a year earlier, data from the General Administration of Customs on Sunday shown.

Imports from Russia totaled 12.67 million tonnes in the two months, or 1.57 million Bpd. That compares with 1.72 million bpd in the corresponding 2021 period.

The request for the Russian flagship ESPO-Rou from the Chinese independent refineries, known as Teapots, was met by Beijing’s force against tax evasion and illegal trade in import quotas.

The government has also cut its first batch of 2022 raw import permits for teapots, with the aim of eliminating inefficient refining capacity.

Imports from Russia could decline in March as buyers worldwide shipped their cargo following the intensified Ukraine crisis. But Reuters reports that Russian producer Surgutneftegaz is working with China to circumvent Western sanctions and stop oil sales. read more

Sunday’s tariff data show that 259,937 tonnes of Iranian crude oil arrived in China in January, about the same level as in December 2021, the first imports recorded from official Chinese data since December 2020.

The deliveries came as Tehran and Western nations held talks to revive a 2015 nuclear deal, pointing to a possible lifting of US sanctions on Iranian oil exports. read more

No Iranian cargo was seized by Chinese customs in February.

China’s official data also showed no imports from Venezuela, which is also subject to US sanctions, in January and February.

Here is the detailed breakdown of the trade, with volumes and metric tons:

Report by Muyu Xu and Dominique Patton Editing by Mark Potter

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