Saudi Arabia's crude oil exports to China showed an increase in October this year, compared to the previous month and the same period a year ago, according to China’s General Administration of Customs data on Monday.
Russia, which was the top crude supplier to China in 2017 and 2018, has been overtaken by Saudi Arabia this year, which now reigns as the largest crude oil supplier to China. Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude oil exporter sent an average of 1.98 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude to the world's biggest oil importer China during the month of October, the data showed.
This marked a jump of 77% from the month of October in 2018 when Chinese imports from the kingdom averaged 1.12 million bpd. The figure for October 2019 also represents a 14% increase on the month of September 2019 when imports from Saudi Arabia averaged 1.74 million bpd.
China's crude oil imports increased this year after the launch of two new Chinese refineries, each with a capacity of 400,000 barrels per day. Hengli Petrochemical said in May that its refinery in Dalian, northeast of China's Liaoning Province, was fully operational.
Zhejiang Petrochemical's refinery in the city of Zhoushan began operations earlier this year, and plans to double its capacity to 800,000 bpd. Saudi national oil company Aramco signed an agreement in February with the Zhoushan Municipal People's Government to acquire a 9% stake in the refinery.
(Anadolu Agency)
