They were tempted by Russian discounts. Putin is willing to buy his oil

Chinese independent refineries increased the import of overpriced crude oil from Russia, while limiting the purchase of this raw material from competing suppliers such as Angola and Brazil. Imports from these countries fell by 27 and 58 percent respectively, year on year.

The Bloomberg agency informed in July that Russian oil is offered in China at prices by 10 percent. lower than similar grade raw material from Brazil. The rebate is related to the sanctions imposed by Western countries on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

In July, China imported almost 7.15 million tons of oil from Russia, up by 7.6 percent. more than in July last year. The figure includes the raw material transported via the East Siberia-Pacific oil pipeline and transported by sea from ports in the European and Far Eastern part of Russia.

This means that in July, an average of 1.68 million barrels per day were imported from Russia to China. This is less than in the record-breaking May in this respect, when imports were close to 2 million barrels a day, Reuters points out.

From the beginning of the year to the end of July, China imported 48.45 million tons of crude oil from Russia, which was 4.4 percent higher than the previous year. more than in the same period last year. In this approach, Saudi Arabia is still the leader, from which China bought 49.84 million tons of crude oil by the end of July, down 1 percent. less than a year earlier.

Total crude oil imports to China fell 9.5% year-on-year in July as refineries used their own inventories and domestic demand growth was slower than expected, Reuters reported.