Chinese oil imports from ship-to-ship transfers surged last month as flows from some traditional suppliers were crimped by the White House’s aggressive trade and foreign policies.
Some 910,000 tons of crude, three times as much as in August, was offloaded at Chinese ports after being transferred in the South China Sea, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.
It is unclear where this oil came from.
The world’s biggest crude importer has been struggling to replace lost barrels from Iran and Venezuela, which have been hit by Trump White House sanctions this year.
Cargoes from the US also dropped markedly last month, the data show, after Beijing imposed tariffs on American oil for the first time on September 1 as the trade war heated up. Meanwhile, shipments from Malaysia almost tripled.
Imports from Malaysia rose to 1.385 million tons last month, making it the seventh-biggest supplier to China, up from 16th in August. Malaysian domestic production is limited, so it is likely the increased volumes are coming from other countries and being blended in the Southeast Asian nation, said Liu Yuntao, an analyst at Energy Aspects Ltd.
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