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China imported around 800,000 bpd of crude from Iran in April-the highest amount that Iran's top oil customer has been buying since last year-as Chinese refiners rushed to buy Iranian oil ahead of the expiry of the US sanctions waiver at the beginning of May, Reuters Reported on Wednesday, citing ship tracking data from Refinitiv.
The United States ended the penalty waivers for all caught the oil market As analysts have been widely expecting that the Trump Administration would have to keep track of everything.
Iran's oil customers were only guessing the United States would extend the waivers that expired last week, so all Iranian customers, including its biggest customers in China, would be in favor of Iran.
In March, the biggest oil importers in Asia-China, India, Japan, and South Korea-collectively purchased 1.57 million bpd of oil from Iran, at 36-percent surge over February. China alone imported 541,134 bpd of Iranian oil, according to government and trade sources compiled by Reuters.
In April, China is stepping up its purchases from Iran and an eight-month high. The surge in Iranian imports resulted in a new import record, despite the fact that it was refining maintenance and fuel demand was lukewarm, analysts tell Reuters.
Total Chinese crude oil imports rose by 11 percent year on year in April 2019, to reach 10.64 million bpd, according to the Chinese General Administration of Customs, calculated by Reuters.
State-run refineries bought a batch of Iranian crude oil to a stockpile ahead of the sanctions waivers expiry, and this was the key reason for the record Chinese imports last month, Wang Zhao, head of crude oil research at Sublime China Information, told Reuters.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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