China imported a record volume of crude oil in September, with receipts from top suppliers Saudi Arabia and Russia also rose, preliminary customs data show. According to the data, China’s crude imports reached 11.85 million bpd last month, up by 5.6% from August and 17.6% from a year earlier. Saudi Arabia delivered 1.9 million bpd of crude, increasing by 53% from August and making it China’s largest crude supplier in September.
Russia was in the second spot with 1.83 million bpd, the highest since June. PetroChina’s 190,000 bpd Daqing refinery received its first batch of Russian ESPO Blend crude by pipeline last month after completing a revamp that allowed the facility to process the Russian grade. Around 504,000 bpd of China-bound crude cargoes were loaded in September from the Kozmino terminal in Russia’s far east.
The US supplied China with 952,000 bpd of crude last month, skyrocketing by more than sevenfold from September 2019 and exceeding the previous record of 840,000 bpd set in July. China was the top export market for American oil loaded in August, but loadings to China fell from a record high of 1.26 million bpd in May. The increase in US crude imports was in line with Beijing’s aim to meet its commitment under the phase-one trade deal. Imports from the US averaged 292,000 bpd in the January-September period of 2020, increasing by more than 100% from the same period in 2019.
