In October, China’s crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia skyrocketed by 76% year-on-year or 1.99 million bpd to 8.41 million mt, a new record high despite estimates that there would be delays due to attack on Saudi’s oil facilities in September.
On the other hand, the country imported zero oil from Venezuela, the first time of no imports since October 2010. State-run PetroChina, the top importer of Venezuelan crude, complied with US sanctions on Venezuela and suspended the direct purchase of oil from the country since October.
However, Venezuela was still the 10th biggest of China’s crude supplier in the first ten months of the year, although the year-on-year volume slumped y 21% to 11.41 million mt or 275,020 bpd, according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC).
Russia was the second-biggest supplier of 6.97 million mt.
Crude shipments from the US were up by 75% month-on-month to 908,422 mt or 214,798 bpd despite the 5% levy on US crude effective on September 1. In October 2018, China did not import crude from the US as the trade tensions escalated at that time.
A trader based in Beijing commented that the confirmed 5% tariffs were better than the uncertainties over the next move in the trade dispute.
Some traders expected the US crude exports to China would continue in November as the lower crude prices would help in absorbing the impact of the tariffs. Other than that, an open arbitrage window for US crude to China is still possible.
Iran exported 532,790 mt of crude, down by 1.1% month-on-month and 49% year-on-year. From the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), China bought 233.24 million mt, up by 11% year-on-year. Supplies from Asia Pacific, Europe, and South America rose 33%, 17%, and 11%, respectively, year on year.
According to market sources, most of the recent arrivals were injected into bonded SPR tanks in northeastern China Jinzhou and southern China Huizhou.
