China defies sanctions to make Russia its biggest oil supplier in 2023
Moscow now world's largest crude exporter to China, overtaking Saudi ArabiaReuters,
BEIJING -- Data released on Saturday indicated that Russia overtook Saudi Arabia as China's primary supplier of crude oil in 2023, as the largest importer of crude oil globally disregarded Western sanctions to buy large amounts of cheap oil for its processing facilities.
According to Chinese customs data, Russia exported a record 107.02 million metric tons of crude oil to China last year, or 2.14 million barrels per day (bpd). This is significantly more than any other major oil exporter, including Saudi Arabia and Iraq..
ESPO crude shipments for December delivery were priced at a discount of around 50 cents to 20 cents per barrel to the ICE Brent benchmark, versus a $1 premium for October delivery cargoes and a discount of $8.50 for shipments delivered in March, according to trading sources.
At the same time, Saudi Arabia raised prices for its signature Arab Light from July, pushing some refiners to look for cheaper cargoes.
To support prices, Saudi Arabia and Russia, two of the world's top three oil producers, announced output and export cuts last year. Saudi Arabia is rolling over output cuts of 1 million bpd this quarter, while Russia said it would deepen its cut in exports this year to 500,000 bpd from 300,000 bpd.
In order to avoid breaking Western sanctions, Chinese refiners handle the shipping and insurance of Russian crude through middlemen traders.
The waters off Malaysia are also used by buyers as a transshipment location for banned goods from Venezuela and Iran. Malaysian origin imports increased by 53.7% in the previous year.
Despite the United States lifting its sanctions on Caracas in October as a result of an agreement between President Nicolas Maduro's administration and its political opposition, China did not officially report any shipments of Venezuelan crude in December..
81.1% more crude oil was shipped to China from the United States last year than the previous year, even though Beijing and Washington were experiencing geopolitical tensions.
In 2023, China's total imports of crude oil reached a record 563.99 million metric tons, or 11.28 million barrels per day.