China Will Resume Oil Import From US

Unipec, the trading arm of Chinese state oil major Sinopec and China’s largest buyer of US crude oil until recently, is set to resume purchases from the United States “very soon,” and volumes are likely to be significant, a senior Unipec executive told S&P Global Platts on Saturday.
At the height of the summer and the US-China tariff spat, Unipec suspended crude oil imports from the United States in August and has not booked cargoes at least until October, said sources familiar with the plans of the trading unit of Asia’s biggest refiner Sinopec.
Although crude oil is not on China’s tariff list, Chinese buyers have been staying away from US crude oil purchases since the summer, when the trade war escalated.
According to EIA data, the US did not export any crude oil to China in August and September, compared to 384,000 bpd in July and a record-high 510,000 bpd in June.
After the US and China called a trade war truce in early December and pledged to immediately begin trade negotiations in view of a possible deal within 90 days, Chinese refiners started to look for opportunities to buy US crude oil by March 1, when the negotiating period expires.
“China will agree to purchase a not yet agreed upon, but very substantial, amount of agricultural, energy, industrial, and other product from the US to reduce the trade imbalance between our two countries,” the White House said after the meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit earlier this month.