China’s purchase of Saudi crude oil jumped 43 percent on the year in April to an average 1.53 million barrels per day compared to 1.07 million barrels per day in April last year.
Independent refiners continued to import more on Saudi as the sanctions on Iranian oil continues. Imports of Saudi and Russian oil increased after the waivers to purchase Iranian oil ended.
Oil from Saudi made up the largest share of crude imports of China. Oil imports reached 6.3 million tons in April surpassing Russian oil import during the reporting period at 6.12 million tons or 1.49 million barrels per day. China also increased its import of Russian oil. Russian oil imports increased from 1.35 million barrels per day to 6.12 million tons in April of last year, or 1.49 million barrels per day last month.
Customs data cited by Reuters implied that refiners in China increased their purchases of Iranian crude in April before the waivers for the sanctions ended.
However, China ended its import of Iranian oil following the announcement of the United States not to extend the waivers. Rahim Xare, who is a member of the economic commission of the Iranian parliament, said that China, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Turkey, which were previously granted waivers, purchased from Iran a total of 1.6 million barrels of oil daily in March, but have ceased purchases since.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Businessmen in Tehran noted that Chinese companies were no longer buying Iranian oil. According to the report, Iran still hopes to resume its oil transactions with China.
