2024-01-05T10:34:55+00:00
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/ Reuters reported, on Friday, that oil trade between China and Iran “stopped” as Tehran blocked shipments and demanded higher prices from its largest customer, reducing cheap supplies to the world’s largest importer of crude.
According to the agency, a decrease in Iranian oil supplies, which constitute about 10 percent of China’s crude imports and reached a record level in October 2023, may support global prices.
China’s imports of sanctioned Iranian oil recorded the highest level in at least 10 years, after rising global prices increased the attractiveness of discounted crude, according to an analysis from the data company Kpler, last August, and Iran also increased its oil exports over the past year. , after “strengthening its geopolitical roles,” according to Bloomberg.
The agency noted that “most of its shipments are directed towards China, which is lenient in investigating imports of bitumen mixture, which is sometimes mixed with Iranian crude oil, and helps speed up the passage of shipments through customs,” according to what it quoted traders in the market.
Beijing’s average imports from Iran reached 917 thousand barrels of oil per day during the first seven months of 2023, and this number jumped to one and a half million barrels per day during August, the highest number since 2013, according to Kpler data.