Saudi Arabia’s crude oil supplies to China will decrease in February compared to the previous month, trade sources said on Thursday, after the kingdom raised its oil prices and as OPEC+ extended production cuts in the first quarter.
State oil company Saudi Aramco will send about 43.5 million barrels to China in February, based on a calculation of allocations to Chinese refiners, down from 46 million barrels in January, which was a three-month high.
Chinese state giants CNOOC and PetroChina 601857.SS and private refiner Hengli Petrochemical 600346.SS will reduce crude output in February, while Saudi Aramco will increase its supplies to Sinopec 600028.SS and Sinochem, they said.
Aramco declined to comment on its February allocation to China.
OPEC+, which produces about half the world’s oil production, decided in early December to delay an oil production increase by three months until April and extend production cuts by a year until the end of 2026 due to weak demand and a surge in production. outside the group.
With supplies more limited, Aramco also raised official selling prices to Asia for the first time in three months.
Earlier this week, it raised the official selling price (OSP) for flagship Arab Light crude by 60 cents to $1.50 per barrel above the Oman/Dubai benchmark average, slightly above market expectations.
Refiners in Asia, especially China and India, are looking to buy more Middle Eastern-quality oil after broader sanctions from Western countries tightened supplies and pushed up Russian and Iranian oil prices.
Saudi Arabia is the second largest supplier of crude oil to China after Russia.
China’s crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia totaled 72.27 million tons (1.44 million barrels per day) for the first 11 months of 2024, down 9.6% from the same period a year earlier, Chinese customs data showed in December.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Siyi Liu and Florence Tan in Singapore; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Kate Mayberry)
