China’s imports of Russian oil near record high in March

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Russia remained China’s top oil supplier in March, data showed on Saturday, as refiners snapped up stranded Sokol shipments.

China’s imports from Russia, including supplies via pipelines and sea-borne shipments, jumped 12.5 per cent on the year to 10.81 million metric tons, or 2.55 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, according to data from the General Administration of Customs.

That was quite close to the previous monthly record of 2.56 million bpd in June 2023.

Seven Russian tankers under sanctions offloaded Sokol cargoes in Chinese ports in March, as Russia worked to clear a glut of stranded supply in the wake of tightened U.S. sanctions.

More than 10 million barrels of the oil supplied by Sakhalin-1, a unit of Rosneft, had been floating in storage over the past three months amid payment difficulties and sanctions on shipping firms and vessels carrying the crude.

In coordination with other OPEC+ members, Russia opted to roll forward a voluntary reduction in crude oil output of 300,000 bpd into the first quarter of the year to support energy prices.

Imports from Saudi Arabia, previously China’s largest supplier, totalled 6.3 million tons in March, or 1.48 million bpd, down 29.3 per cent on the same period last year.

Riyadh has said it would extend its voluntary cut of 1 million bpd through the end of June, leaving its output at around nine million bpd.

The world’s top exporter kept the March official selling price of its flagship Arab Light to Asia at $1.50 over the Oman/Dubai average as the Kingdom sought to secure market share.

January-March imports from Malaysia, a trans-shipment point for sanctioned cargoes from Iran and Venezuela, soared 39.2 per cent on the year to 13.7 million tons, or 3.23 million bpd.

The data showed 375,296 tons of imports from Venezuela, following a rare shipment of 352,455 tons of Venezuelan crude in February amid a temporary relaxation of United States sanctions on Caracas. Sanctions were re-imposed from Thursday after the US said President Nicolas Maduro had failed to meet his election commitments.

Customs recorded no imports from Iran.

Reporting by Andrew Hayley and Amy Lv, Reuters