China’s March crude oil imports from Malaysia amounted to 1.054 million tonnes, an increase of 107 percent from a year earlier. While oil purchases from No.2 supplier Russia rose 31 percent, imports from Saudi Arabia fell 1.6 percent from a year earlier.
Despite cuts in refining rates and falling domestic fuel demand, China's crude oil imports in March rose 4.5 percent year on year to 9.68 million bpd.
Oil shipments from Saudi Arabia were 1.7 million bpd (7.21 million tonnes). That was average daily imports of 1.79 million bpd from January to February this year and down from 1.73 million bpd a year earlier.
Down from 1.71 million bpd recorded for the first two months, Russia supplied 7.02 million tonnes last month or 1.66 million bpd.
China's oil imports in March from the US remained close to zero. There were no shipments from Venezuela for the fifth month in a row as China National Petroleum Corp steered clear of Venezuelan crudes to avoid violating secondary US sanctions.
Malaysia’s Petronas said most of its domestic projects that were suspended due to coronavirus restrictions either have resumed activities or will be restarting soon.
