By Chen Aizhu

(Reuters) – China’s April imports from Saudi Arabia, the top-seller, climbed 38% over a year ago, reaching their highest monthly volume since May 2020 according to Reuters calculations based upon official Chinese customs data.

Last month’s Saudi shipment totalled 8.93 millions tonnes, which is roughly 2.17 million barrels/day (bpd), according the data of China General Administration of Customs.

These large purchases were made largely in February and compare to 1.61 million BPD in March, as well as 1.57 million BPD a year ago.

The imports of Russia, the second largest supplier, rose by 4% in February compared to a year ago. Cargoes were booked after sanctions against Russia for their invasion of Ukraine late February.

The Russian oil imports to April reached 6.55 Million tonnes (or 1.59 Mbpd), according to data. This is slightly higher than the 1.5 million bpd recorded in March and 1.53M bpd last year.

China’s crude oil imports increased nearly 7 percent last month compared to the previous year. This was the first increase in three months. However, widespread COVID-19 lockdowns have drained fuel demand and slowed refinery output.

Friday’s data indicated that Iran imported zero oil in April. Customs will likely report next month for May that nearly 2,000,000 barrels of Iranian crude oil were being released into south China’s reserve base.

China continued to take Iranian oil in spite of U.S. sanctions. Sometimes, these Iranian supplies are passed on as imports from other countries. China imports roughly 7 percent of its total crude oil imports.

Iranian oil has a lower price than comparable grades. This means that it is able to compete with other producers from Brazil and West Africa.

According to Customs reports, there were no imports from Venezuela. This is because state oil firms have been refusing purchases of Venezuelan crude since 2019 due to fear that the country could fall under secondary U.S. sanctions.

The second-highest record for imports of oil from Malaysia was 2.165 Million tonnes.

In addition, China also saw an increase in its imports in April of Russian liquefied fuel (LNG), up to 88% compared with a year prior, and reaching 462,975 tonnes in April. This was despite a steep fall in overall imports.

China’s total LNG imports fell 34.5% last month to 4.35 Million tonnes. This is the slowest pace since March 2020, as Chinese importers resisted expensive global spot supplies.

Here is a detailed breakdown of oil imports with volumes in millions tonnes.

Country April Jan-April

%change %change

Saudi 8.932 38 30.4 3.5

Russia 6.551 4 25.61

Iraq 4.089 -8 18.85 4

Angola 2.781 -10 11.69 -10

Brazil 2.435 -13 8.79 -25

United 0.748-19 3.27-43

States

Malaysia 2.165 86.2 21

Iran 0.26

Venezuela 0 0

Oman 2.9975 16 14.98 0.1

UAE 3.096 66 12.22 21,

(total weight = 7.3 barrels to convert crude oil)