Chinese imports of Saudi Arabian oil have soared in the first 11 months of this year, pushed up by several massive joint refinery projects. The latest figures have solidified the Middle Eastern country’s position as China’s top oil supplier, as it surpassed Russia earlier this year. Meanwhile oil imports from Venezuela and Iran slumped further amid U.S. sanctions, according to customs data released on Thursday.
China imported 8.21 million tons of crude oil from Saudi Arabia in November, which pushed the total volume in the first 11 month of the year to a record 76.33 million tons, up 53% from a year earlier. That surpassed the 70.3 million tons of oil imported from Russia, and 47.08 million tons from Iraq. This is the second month in a row China imported no oil from Venezuela, and imports from Iran fell 47% year-on-year to 14.36 million tons for the year to November.
The surge in Saudi imports came as the country has aggressively expanded its downstream business by setting up a batch of Sino-Saudi joint ventures in petroleum refining, storage and sales, in an effort to shore up the mega-IPO of the nation’s conglomerate Saudi Aramco this year. Two joint refineries – Hengli Petrochemical and Zhejiang Petrochemical, were granted import quotas of 24.30 million tons of oil in total in 2019, and the volume is expected to keep growing in 2020 as Beijing loosens restrictions governing private companies in the energy sector.
