Iran has overtaken Gulf state Saudi Arabia as the number one supplier of crude oil to China.
Chinese customs data has shown that Iran export’s rose by 88% to 727,000 barrels per day (bpd) to China while Saudi Arabia’s dropped by 15.5% to 650,000 bpd.
However, Reuters reported that experts in China said that certain factors, such as port congestion and supply cuts from the KSA, may be responsible for the figures.
“Saudis can’t supply the amount of heavy grades Chinese refineries asked for, as most of the OPEC-agreed cuts are on these heavy grades. Chinese may have sorted it out by taking more such grades from Iran,” a trader is reported by Reuters as saying.
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