Saudi Arabia remains largest crude oil supplier to China in 2020

Oil containers

Saudi Arabia beat Russia to retain its ranking as China’s top crude supplier in 2020, Reuters reported, citing data from the General Administration of Chinese Customs.

China is the largest importer of oil in the world, as its purchases rose 7.3% year-on-year (YoY) to 542.4 million tons of crude or 10.85 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Annual Saudi shipments to China in 2020 were 84.92 million tons, or about 1.69 million bpd, up 1.9% from a year earlier.

Russia came in close, ranking second, with shipments of 83.57 million tons, or 1.67 million bpd, up 7.6% from 2019.

China’s imports from the United States reached a total of 19.76 million tons in 2020, or about 394,000 bpd.

This is despite the decline in Saudi supplies by 0.8% in December, on an annual basis, to 6.94 million tons, and a decrease in Russia's shipments by 15.7% at 6.2 million tons.