Russia remains China's top oil supplier for 5th month in a row in July
BEIJING (Reuters) — Russia held its spot as China's top crude oil supplier for a fifth month in a row in July, with shipments up 54% over a year earlier, data showed on Wednesday.
Russian shipments last month came in at 4.97 MMt, or about 1.17 MMbpd, the General Administration of Customs said in a more a detailed breakdown of commodity trade data released on Aug. 8.
For the first seven months of the year, Russia's volumes to China grew nearly 16% year-on-year to 34.22 MMt, or 1.18 MMbpd.
China bought a total of 34.74 MMt of crude oil in July, or about 8.18 MMbpd, down from June but still up about 12% from a year earlier.
Imports in the first seven months grew 13.6% year-on-year to 247 MMt, or 8.51 MMbpd,
Saudi Arabia was China's second biggest supplier in July, with volumes at 3.99 MMt, or about 940,000 bpd, down 0.8% from a year earlier.
Supplies from the Kingdom rose only 0.4% in January–July from the same period a year earlier to 30.59 MMt, or 1.05 MMbpd.
Shipments from Angola, China's third-largest supplier in July, fell 17.1% from a year earlier to 3.91 MMt, or 921,520 bpd.
Year-to-date, Angola maintained its second-ranking for the third month in a row, with January-July supplies up 15%.
Chinese refineries have taken more Brent-related, sweet West African crudes in recent months, scaling back on sour Middle East grades because of the narrowing price differentials that make West African supplies more attractive.
Russian crude exports to China grew this year after independent refiners expanded their diet to include the Urals grade exported from the Mediterranean. China also snapped up almost all of the ESPO blend exports from the Pacific port of Kozmino.
Chinese imports of US crude, which started last year, were about 174,000 bpd in July and amounted to 3.8 MMt for the first seven months of the year, or 1.5% of the country's total imports.
Chinese buyers have over the period also ramped up imports of Brazilian oil, with first-seven month shipments up 41% on year.
Imports from Iran inched up 0.45% on year in July at 568,720 bpd while supplies from Iraq shot up 16% at 857,020 bpd, customs data showed.
Reporting by Chen Aizhu and Meng Meng; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Kim Coghill
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