Saudi Arabia’s surprise cut transforms oil market outlook

Saudi Arabia’s surprise cut transforms oil market outlook

Saudi Arabia pips Russia to be China's biggest oil supplier in 2020



Oil demand in China, the world's top oil importer, remained strong last year

Saudi shipments to China in 2020 rose 1.9 percent from a year earlier to 84.92 million tons

Updated 20 January 2021

Reuters

January 20, 2021 09:23

BEIJING/SINGAPORE: Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, beat Russia to keep its ranking as China's top crude supplier in 2020, Chinese government data showed on Wednesday.

Oil demand in China, the world's top oil importer, remained strong last year even as the coronavirus crisis hammered global appetite.

Chinese imports rose 7.3 percent to a record of 542.4 million tons or 10.85 million barrels per day (bpd).

Saudi shipments to China in 2020 rose 1.9 percent from a year earlier to 84.92 million tons, or about 1.69 million bpd, data from the General Administration of Chinese Customs showed.

Russia was a close second with shipments of 83.57 million tons, or 1.67 million bpd, up 7.6 percent from 2019, the data showed.

In December, Saudi supplies were 6.94 million tons, down 0.8 percent from the same month a year earlier, while Russian volumes fell 15.7 percent to 6.2 million tons.

China's imports of US oil more than tripled in