MOSCOW: China’s total crude oil imports rebounded to the second highest on record last month to 9.01 million bpd, with imports partially driven by a new additional batch of import quotas released to independent refiners. (Photo: Reuters) Related News
Russia held on as China’s largest crude oil supplier for the ninth month in a row in November, also topping Saudi Arabia for the year so far, Chinese customs data showed on Tuesday. Shipments from Russia in November reached 5.12 million tonnes, or 1.26 million barrels per day (bpd), up 11 percent from a year ago, according to detailed commodity trade data for last month from China’s General Administration of Customs.
That compared to October’s 1.095 million bpd in Russian oil imports, and a record set in September at 1.545 million bpd. Saudi Arabia came in second, with November imports from there dropping 7.8 percent from a year ago to 1.056 million bpd.
For the first 11 months of the year, Russian supplies expanded 15.5 percent on the year to 54.77 million tonnes, or 1.2 million bpd, overtaking Saudi Arabia by 159,000 bpd. The boost in Russian supplies was supported in part by robust demand from China’s independent refineries, and also by increases in supplies via a trans-Siberia pipeline.
