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Oil Buyer News

04 Dec 2023

India Resumes Imports of Venezuelan Oil

© Fotos von Schiffen / Adobe Stock

Indian refiners have resumed Venezuelan oil purchases through intermediaries, with Reliance RELI.NS set to meet executives from state firm PDVSA next week to discuss direct sales following the easing of U.S. sanctions on the South American country, people familiar with the matter said.Trade resumed between the OPEC producer and the second largest destination for its oil after Washington in October temporarily lifted sanctions banning Venezuelan oil exports, prompting a flurry of spot sales of crude and fuel through middlemen and traders…

27 Jul 2023

Obscure Traders Ship Half Russia's Oil Exports to India, China After Sanctions

© Jouni Niskakoski / Adobe Stock

A Liberian-flagged oil tanker set sail in May from Russia's Ust-Luga port carrying crude on behalf of a little-known trading company based in Hong Kong. Before the ship had even reached its destination in India, the cargo changed hands.The new owner of the 100,000 tonnes of Urals crude carried on the Leopard I was a similarly low-profile outfit, Guron Trading, also based in Hong Kong, according to two trading sources.The number of little-known trading firms relied on by Moscow to export large volumes of crude exports to Asia has mushroomed in recent months…

02 Mar 2023

China Importing Russian Oil at Record Pace

© Igor Groshev / Adobe Stock

China's seaborne imports of Russian oil are set to hit a record this month after refiners took advantage of cheap prices as domestic fuel demand rebounded, but Russia's plan to cut exports will likely cap buying in coming months.Hefty Chinese buying, alongside robust Indian demand, has been spurred by steep price discounts but is providing Moscow much-needed revenue after the Group of Seven imposed a $60 price cap on Russian crude."Price is the king," said a purchasing manager…

23 Jan 2023

Saudi Arabia Remains China's Top Crude Supplier

© Jason / Adobe Stock

Russia remained China's second-largest source of crude oil in 2022, following repeat top supplier Saudi Arabia, as Chinese refiners snapped up low-cost Russian barrels while Western countries shunned them after the Ukraine crisis.China's crude oil imports from Russia jumped 8% in 2022 from a year earlier to 86.25 million tonnes, equivalent to 1.72 million barrels per day (bpd), data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Friday.Russian crude has been trading in widening discounts to global oil benchmarks following Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine…

26 Aug 2022

Chinese Defense Firm Takes Over Lifting Venezuelan Oil for Debt Offset

China has entrusted a defense-focussed state firm to ship millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil despite U.S. sanctions, part of a deal to offset Caracas' billions of dollars of debt to Beijing, according to three sources and tanker tracking data. China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) stopped carrying Venezuelan oil in August 2019 after Washington tightened sanctions on the South American exporter. But it continued to find its way to China via traders who rebranded the fuel as Malaysian, Reuters has reported.

14 Jan 2021

China's 2020 Crude Oil Imports Hit Record

For illustration only - Crude oil tanker in front of Qingdao coastline - Image by Igor Groshev/AdobeStock

China's total crude oil imports surged 7.3% in 2020 despite the coronavirus shock early in the year, with record arrivals in the second and third quarter amid plunging oil prices and expanding refineries, data showed on Thursday.For 2020, the world's top oil buyer brought in a record 542.37 million tonnes of crude oil, or 10.85 million barrels per day (bpd).December shipments were 38.47 million tonnes, equivalent to 9.06 million bpd, according to data released by the General Administration of Customs on Thursday.That was down about 15% from 10.71 million bpd in December last year and off 11.04

16 Oct 2020

Glencore to Send First Spot LNG Cargo to Zhoushan

LNG Carrier Illustration - Credit: alexyz3d
/AdobeStock

Swiss-based global mining and commodities trader Glencore is set to send its first spot liquefied natural gas cargo to Zhoushan in eastern China in a trading joint venture with Zhejiang Energy Group, a top company trader said on Friday.Glencore's joint venture with Zhejiang, which is backed by the provincial government, dates from 2018, making it one of the few Western traders with such tie-ups in China, the world's top crude oil buyer and second-largest importer of LNG.Alex Sanna…

26 Jun 2020

China's Saudi Oil Imports Surge to All-time High

© Riekelt / Adobe Stock

China's crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia nearly doubled in May from a year earlier to all-time high as refineries snapped up cheap fuel, while the kingdom retained its position as the top supplier to the world's biggest oil buyer.Arrivals from Saudi last month reached 9.165 million tonnes, or 2.16 million barrels per day (bpd), up about 95% from 1.11 million bpd in May 2019 and up 71% from 1.26 million bpd in April, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.Chinese refineries have cranked up throughput to meet a recovery in fuel demand…

27 Sep 2019

Oil Freight Rates Rocket After U.S. Sanctions COSCO

Asian oil suppliers face high tanker charter rates following new U.S. sanctions against Chinese oil transporter COSCO. (Photo © Adobe Stock / Vladimir)

Oil freight rates in the Middle East and Asia have increased by almost 20 percent today following new US sanctions on units of Chinese company COSCO for its alleged involvement in ferrying crude oil out of Iran.In what the U.S. State Department has described as “one of the largest sanctions actions the U.S. has taken” since restrictions were re-imposed on Iran in November 2018, two units of COSCO, as well as other companies, were named in claims of involvement in sanctions-breaking Iranian oil shipments.Asian oil buyers have been rushing to the shipping market to charter vessels…

02 Aug 2019

Japan Refuses to Join U.S. Middle East Coalition

File Image: a Japanese Naval warship asset (CREDIT: AdobeStock / © JPAaron

Japan will not send warships to join a U.S.-led maritime force to guard oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz fearing a military response from Iran, but it may send patrol aircraft, said the Mainichi newspaper, citing unidentified government sources.But Japan may send warships independently to protect Japanese ships in the world's most important oil artery, the newspaper said on Friday."We are closely monitoring the situation and continue to collect information while working closely with the United States and other countries…

10 Jan 2019

US Oil Export Boom Sparks Battle to Build Texas Ports

© Robert Coy / Adobe Stock

Booming U.S. oil exports have set off a scramble to build Gulf Coast ports to handle more than 3 million barrels per day in new supplies expected over the next five years.Of seven proposed oil-export projects, nowhere is the opportunity greater or the competition more fierce than in Corpus Christi, Texas, where three firms are vying to open the state's first deepwater port.Commodities trader Trafigura has taken an early lead with a planned offshore facility that has an easier…

11 Oct 2018

US Oil Exports to Asia May Slide Further

© Anatoly Menzhiliy / Adobe Stock

Rising shipping rates have increased the costs of shipping oil from the United States to Asia and may further the restrict the flow of U.S. oil to the region later this year, multiple trade and shipping sources said on Thursday.Freight rates for tankers that carry crude oil have soared globally, buoyed by peak seasonal demand, weather disruptions and higher bunker fuel costs, the sources said.The cost of chartering a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) capable of carrying 2 million barrels of crude from the U.S.

03 Aug 2018

​​​​Chinese Tariffs on LNG, Oil May Threaten US Energy Dominance

© Igor Groshev / Abobe Stock

China's targeting of U.S. liquefied natural gas and crude oil exports opens a new front in the trade war between the two countries, at a time when the White House is trumpeting growing U.S. energy export prowess.China included LNG for the first time in its list of proposed tariffs on Friday, the same day that its biggest U.S. crude oil buyer, Sinopec, suspended U.S. crude oil imports due to the dispute, according to three sources familiar with the situation.On Friday, China announced retaliatory tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S.

07 Apr 2017

India's Oil Imports from Iran top 500,000 bpd in 2016/17

India's Iran oil imports jumped to a record high in 2016/17 topping half-a-million barrels per day (bpd) as refiners boosted purchases after lifting of some Western sanctions against Tehran last year. India, Iran's biggest oil buyer after China, was among a handful of countries that continued to deal with Tehran despite Western sanctions over its nuclear programme. Refiners shipped in about 541,000 bpd of Iranian oil in the fiscal year to March, a growth of about 115 percent over the previous year, ship tracking data obtained from sources and data compiled by Thomson Reuters Oil Research & Forecasts showed. Iran was India's second biggest oil supplier - a position now belonging to Iraq - before economic sanctions aimed at Iran's nuclear programme hampered its trade relations…

14 Jul 2015

Iran Deal Could Help India Boost Exports by Over a Third

India's exports to Iran could jump by over a third to $6 billion this fiscal year as an easing of sanctions against Tehran would help boost sales of agricultural commodities though competition for non-farm items would rise, a leading trade body said. Iran has been buying most of its basmati rice and sugar from India in the past few years using rupees for its oil due to restrictions on its dollar trades. On Tuesday, Iran and six major world powers reached a deal that will see the Islamic nation curbing its nuclear programme that the West has suspected was aimed at a nuclear bomb. "It's true that some of our exports, especially non-agricultural ones…

27 Dec 2014

Oil Declines Amid Stronger Dollar, Crude Oversupply in U.S.

Oil prices fell Friday, tumbling as the dollar strengthened and as a supply glut in top consumer, the United States, trumped worries about falling production from Libya. The market had come under pressure from Wednesday's Energy Department report, which showed a 7.3 million-barrel rise in crude inventories to their highest December level on record. Analysts had expected a seasonal decline. The slide was exacerbated as oil prices reacted to a strengthening dollar index. "There's still significant weakness in confidence, and that means that we're going to have occasional retests to the downside," said Richard Hastings of Global Hunter Securities. The strenghtening dollar index triggered the slide on Friday, he said.

09 Aug 2013

Sanctions Force Iran to Increase Tanker Fleet

With Western Sanctions increasingly tightening on Iran, the country has taken delivery of several new oil tankers as it must rely on its own fleet capacity to help sustain crude export shipments, Reuters reported. Sanctions by the U.S. and Europe have severely reduced Iran’s oil Exports from pre-sanction levels of roughly 2.2 million barrels per day and have also led other foreign shipping companies to avoid Iranian business, Reuters said, costing the Islamic Republic billions of dollars in lost revenue each month. Because of this, Iran’s main tanker operator NITC is forced to boost operations and keep wells pumping by exporting cargo. The company reportedly added four tankers to its fleet between May and July and three additional tankers earlier this year.