Russia overtakes Saudi Arabia as the largest crude supplier to China

Oil

Chinese crude imports from Russia rose by 100K b/d m-o-m to 1.76M b/d in April, overtaking Saudi Arabia as the largest crude supplier to China, according to China Customs data. Imports from Saudi Arabia dropped to 1.26M b/d, a decline of 440K b/d m-o-m, the lowest since May last year. China’s total crude oil imports increased by 160K b/d m-o-m to 9.88M b/d in April, and despite being down by 800K b/d from the same month last year, total imports for the first four months of the year were up by 76K b/d on 2019.