China’s reliance on Middle Eastern crudes grew sharply in the first quarter of 2022, as the country reduced inflows from Russia, Brazil and the US, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on April 20.
The Middle Eastern crude deliveries rose 4.8% to 5.6 million b/d in Q1, taking a 53.8% market share in the January-March period, the data showed. Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical drove the Kuwaiti crudes imports, which were up 30% in Q1, to meet the feedstock requirement for its new 400,000 b/d phase 2 facilities. The private complex imported about 103,000 b/d Kuwaiti crude in the January-March period, S&P Global Commodity Insights data showed. March imports from Russia, the second-largest supplier, were down 14.1% from a year ago, leading to a near 11% drop in Russian deliveries to 1.55 million b/d in […]