Chinese State Oil Giants Halt Russian Crude Purchases

Chinese state oil companies, following the example of India's largest oil refineries, have stopped buying Russian oil. The reason is the sanctions imposed by the US against Rosneft and Lukoil.

As Reuters reports, citing sources in the industry, PetroChina, Sinopec, CNOOC, and Zhenhua Oil have decided to refrain from new deals involving Russian oil, at least in the short term. This decision will affect up to one-third of Russian oil exported to China by sea. According to estimates from Vortexa and Energy Aspects, state-owned companies buy 250,000 to 500,000 barrels of oil per day from Russia.

In total, 1.4 million barrels of Russian oil are supplied to China by tankers daily. The bulk of these supplies, however, goes to independent private refineries. According to Reuters sources, they are also likely to temporarily suspend imports but will seek to resume them.

Earlier it became known that due to the sanctions, India's largest oil refineries are also refusing Russian oil. Bloomberg sources reported that they plan to reduce imports from Russia to almost zero. The Kremlin's largest Indian client, Reliance Industries, will sharply reduce or completely stop purchases. Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp, and Mangalore Refinery are also reviewing their contracts.

According to Reuters' interlocutors, Indian and Chinese refineries intend to replace Russian oil with supplies from the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.