FXStreet (Mumbai) – Russia surpassed Saudi Arabia to become China’s top crude supplier as the fight for market share in the world’s second-largest oil consumer intensifies, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia dropped from the top spot to number three, below even Angola, with sales falling to 722,000 b/d, down almost 43 % from the month before.
China imported a record 3.92 million metric tons from its northern neighbor in May, according to data emailed by the Beijing-based General Administration of Customs on Tuesday. That’s equivalent to 927,000 barrels a day, a 20 % increase from the previous month. Saudi sales slumped 42 % from April to 3.05 million tons.
China is becoming a key market for global oil exporters as surging output from shale fields from Texas to North Dakota allows the US, the biggest crude consumer, to rely less on overseas supplies. The Asian nation will account for more than 11 % of world demand this year, the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted this month.
Russia is China’s top crude supplier for the first time since October 2005 as it seeks new markets for its crude amid western sanctions over its dispute with Ukraine.
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