China boosted crude oil imports from Russia in May, tariffs data showed on Monday, helping offset losses incurred by cuts in Russian energy purchases over Western nations’ invasion of Ukraine.
The surge means Russia has overtaken Saudi Arabia to become China’s top oil supplier as the West sanctions Moscow’s energy exports.
The world’s second-largest economy imported about 8.42 million tons of oil from Russia last month – a 55 percent increase from a year earlier.
Beijing has refused to publicly condemn Moscow’s war, instead demanding economic gains from its isolated neighbor.
It imported 7.82 million tons of oil from Saudi Arabia in May.
According to Bloomberg News, China bought $7.47 billion worth of Russian energy products last month, about $1 billion more than in April.
The new tariff data comes four months after the war in Ukraine, with buyers from the United States and Europe avoiding Russian energy imports or promising to reduce them in the coming months.
Asian demand is helping to stem some of those losses for Russia, particularly buyers from China and India.
India bought six times more Russian oil in March-May than in the same period last year, while imports from China tripled over the period, data from research firm Rystad Energy shows.
“Right now, it’s purely for economic reasons that Indian and Chinese refiners are importing more Russian-origin crude…since that oil is cheap,” said analyst Wei Cheong Ho.
According to the International Energy Agency’s latest global oil report, India has overtaken Germany as the second-largest importer of Russian crude in the past two months.
China has been Russia’s largest crude oil market since 2016.
– ‘No limits’ –
Days before Moscow invaded Ukraine, China’s President Xi Jinping welcomed his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to Beijing, where the two countries declared a borderless bilateral relationship.
Though demand in China remains subdued due to Covid restrictions, things have improved somewhat over the past month as cities ease controls after the country’s worst outbreak since the pandemic began.
This has resulted in supply chain problems easing and industrial production picking up again, official data shows.
China’s total imports from Russia rose 80 percent year on year to $10.3 billion in May, according to customs data.
Beijing’s purchases of Russian liquefied natural gas rose 54 percent year-on-year to 397,000 tons, even as overall imports of the fuel fell.
China has been accused of providing Russia with a diplomatic shield by criticizing Western sanctions on Moscow and arms sales to Kyiv.
– Common goal –
Beijing and Moscow, once bitter Cold War rivals, have stepped up their cooperation in recent years to counter what they see as US global dominance.
This month they unveiled the first road bridge linking the countries, linking the far eastern Russian city of Blagoveshchensk to the northern Chinese city of Heihe.
Last week, in a talk between the two leaders, Xi Putin pledged China’s support for Russia’s “sovereignty and security.”
The Kremlin said the pair have agreed to step up economic cooperation in the face of “unlawful” Western sanctions.
The West has imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia in retaliation for its war in Ukraine, forcing Moscow to find new markets and suppliers to replace foreign firms that left Russia after the invasion.
The 27-nation European Union agreed in late May on a package of sanctions that would halt most Russian oil imports.
The United States has already banned all Russian oil, but European nations are far more dependent on these imports.
Energy is a major source of income for Putin’s government, and Western nations are trying to isolate Moscow and hamper its ability to continue the war.
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