Russia overtook Saudi Arabia to become the largest supplier of crude oil to China in 2023. Instead, Beijing continues to ignore Western sanctions against Russia. This is reported by Reuters, according to UNN.
Details
According to Chinese customs data cited by the newspaper, Russia supplied 107 million tons of crude oil to China in a year, which is equivalent to 2.14 million barrels per day.
This is significantly more than other major oil exporters, such as Saudi Arabia and Iraq. In addition, this is a record value for Russian oil supplies to China in general, the agency's journalists note.
Imports from Saudi Arabia, which used to be China's largest supplier, fell by 1.8% to 85.96 million tons as the Middle Eastern oil giant lost market share to cheaper Russian oil.
Total oil imports to China, according to Reuters, amount to 11.28 million barrels per day. Thus, it can be concluded that Russia provides about a quarter of all oil supplies to China.
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According to Reuters, one of the reasons for the record supplies is a discount on Russian energy, as after the imposition of sanctions (including the price ceiling), many countries refused to purchase oil directly. At the same time, the growing demand for cheap oil from Chinese and Indian refineries has raised the price of Russian oil above the $60 ceiling.
Currently, Chinese refiners use intermediary traders to deliver and insure Russian crude oil to avoid violating Western sanctions.
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