China is quietly ramping up Russian crude purchases at low prices, according to shipping data and traders who spoke to Reuters, filling the vacuum left by Western buyers turning away from doing business with Russians following the February invasion of Ukraine. .
The move by the world’s biggest oil importer comes a month after it initially cut off Russian supplies for fear of appearing to openly support Moscow and potentially expose its state-owned oil giants to sanctions.
Russian oil seaborne imports from China will jump to a near-record 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd) in May, up from 750,000 bpd in the first quarter and 800,000 bpd in 2021, according to an estimate by Vortexa. Analytics.
Unipec, the trading arm of Asia’s biggest refiner Sinopec Corp, is leading the purchases, along with Zhenhua Oil, a unit of China’s defense conglomerate Norinco, according to shipping data, a report from a ship broker seen by Reuters and five traders.
Livna Shipping Ltd, a Hong Kong-registered company, has also recently emerged as a major shipper of Russian oil to China, traders said.
Sinopec declined to comment. Zhenhua and Livna did not respond to requests for comment.
The US, UK and some other major oil buyers banned Russian oil imports shortly after the invasion. The European Union is finalizing a new round of sanctions, including a ban on Russian oil purchases.
Many European refiners have already stopped buying from Russia for fear of running afoul of sanctions or attracting negative publicity.
Source: CNN Brasil
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