Customs data showed that in April, Russia overtook Saudi Arabia’s position as China’s top crude oil supplier amid the price war between the world’s two major producers.
Russia’s crude exports to China rose by 18% year-on-year at 7.2 million tonnes in April, or 1.75 million bpd. In March, the level was 1.66 million bpd.
Saudi supplies went down to 1.26 million bpd, down from 1.53 million bpd in April 2019 and 1.7 million bpd in the previous month.
As Chinese oil refineries were taking advantage of the plunging oil prices, crude imports in the first four months of this year edged up by 1.7% year-on-year.
Independent, smaller refineries or teapots were predicted to reach the level before the virus outbreak in utilization rate, at nearly 70%, in late April.
Looking ahead, Refinitiv oil research expected China’s crude imports to hits record high in May at 53.7 million tonnes or 12.7 million bpd. China will also receive the first crude cargo from the US since November this month from the booking in March when oil prices started to fall.
