Despite the tough fight, Saudi Arabia leapfrogged Russia as China's top crude oil supplier, keeping the position it had held every year since 2001.
Even though Russia significantly increased the volume of oil supplies to China, Saudi Arabia was able to deliver more. In September, Russian oil supplies multiplied by 18.6% year-on-year to 7.48 million tons or 1.82 million barrels per day. The Saudis managed to surpass these figures by selling 7.78 million tons or 1.89 million barrels per day to China in September. However, the gap between the two countries was not so big. “Saudi Arabia regained the top supplier list of crude suppliers to China in September after losing it to Russia over the past two months. As imports from the Kingdom amounted to 7.78 million tons, equivalent to 1.89 million barrels per day, up from 1.24 million barrels per day in August,” data from China’s General Administration of Customs showed. It added that last month Russia delivered 7.48 million tons of oil or 1.82 million barrels per day, which was 18.6% more than a year earlier, and 32.8% more than in August.
However, there is good news for Russia too. In the period from January to September, Russia still ranks first in terms of oil supplies to China. Thus, Russia delivered 64.62 million tons, while Saudi Arabia exported 63.57 million tons of oil to the Chinese market in nine months (an increase of 6.5%).
