Singapore — China's crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia surged 28.5% year on year to 1.56 million b/d in February, surpassing Russia to become the top crude supplier in the month, latest data from the General Administration of Customs showed.
Meanwhile, crude shipments from both Venezuela and Iran saw year-on-year increases in February, rising 98.1% and 7.4%, respectively. The healthy inflows helped them to lock their top spots among the leading OPEC suppliers.
Arrivals from Brazil and Iraq also registered strong growths at 66.5% and 78.5%, respectively, compared with the same month last year, part of their efforts to secure outlets in the world's second biggest oil consumer.
In February, China imported its first cargo of US-origin crude oil since December, which was 85,841 mt, according to customs data. The barrels were taken by independent refinery, Hongrun Petrochemical, S&P Global Platts reported previously.
During January-February, China imported 5.93 million b/d of crude oil from OPEC, up 22.9% year on year to expand its market share by 5 percentage points to 58.4%.
However, the volume from North America shrank 86.4% year on year to 49,709 b/d in the first two months due to the sharp drop in US crude arrivals.
| China's top crude suppliers in Feb and Jan-Feb | |||||
| Unit: '000 b/d | |||||
| Feb-19 | Feb-18 | % change | Jan-19 | % change | |
| Saudi Arabia | 1,559 | 1,213 | 28.5% | 1,362 | 14.4% |
| Russia | 1,504 | 1,323 | 13.7% | 1,647 | -8.7% |
| Angola | 1,160 | 976 | 18.8% | 1,227 | -5.4% |
| Brazil | 1,048 | 629 | 66.5% | 892 | 17.5% |
| Iraq | 973 | 545 | 78.5% | 908 | 7.2% |
| Oman | 549 | 840 | -34.7% | 526 | 4.3% |
| Venezuela | 532 | 269 | 98.1% | 411 | 29.5% |
| Iran | 512 | 476 | 7.4% | 379 | 35.2% |
| Kuwait | 355 | 420 | -15.5% | 412 | -13.7% |
| Congo | 321 | 107 | 199.8% | 194 | 65.3% |
| Total* | 10,271 | 8,444 | 21.6% | 10,071 | 2.0% |
| Jan-Feb 2019 | Market share | Jan-Feb 2018 | Market share | % Change | |
| Russia | 1,579 | 15.5% | 1,320 | 14.6% | 19.6% |
| Saudi Arabia | 1,455 | 14.3% | 1,109 | 12.3% | 31.2% |
| Angola | 1,195 | 11.8% | 1,045 | 11.6% | 14.4% |
| Brazil | 966 | 9.5% | 618 | 6.8% | 56.2% |
| Iraq | 939 | 9.2% | 812 | 9.0% | 15.6% |
| Oman | 537 | 5.3% | 671 | 7.4% | -20.1% |
| Venezuela | 469 | 4.6% | 359 | 4.0% | 30.7% |
| Iran | 442 | 4.3% | 621 | 6.9% | -28.9% |
| Kuwait | 385 | 3.8% | 403 | 4.5% | -4.5% |
| U.A.E. | 324 | 3.2% | 197 | 2.2% | 64.6% |
| Total* | 10,166 | 100.0% | 9,043 | 100.0% | 12.4% |
| * Include other suppliers | |||||
| Source: General Administration of Customs (GAC releases data in metric tons, which S&P Global Platts converts to barrels using a 7.33 conversion factor) | |||||
-- Oceana Zhou, oceana.zhou@spglobal.com
-- Edited by Norazlina Jumaat, newsdesk@spglobal.com