China's crude oil imports reversed an earlier decline, rising by 22% from June to an average daily of 8.45 million barrels, or a total of 35.73 million tons, Bloomberg reported today, citing customs data.
China slashed its total crude oil imports to a decade low in June, culminating three months of very low import levels amid high prices and constrained supply from the Middle East. Beijing could afford to dramatically reduce its crude buying, slashing import volumes in June by an estimated 4.4 million barrels daily compared to the 2025 average.
The reason China was able to do that was that as of the end of 2025, the country held the world’s biggest stockpile of oil inventories at 1.397 billion barrels, according to estimates by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That was more than the combined strategic inventories in the United States, Japan, OECD Europe, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and India—the countries next down the list of the world’s top holders of strategic oil reserves.
Thanks to this substantial supply cushion, China became instrumental in keeping a cap on global oil prices despite the turmoil in the Middle East, as the biggest importer of the commodity in the world could hit pause on imports for a while. However, analysts warned earlier this year that at some point China will return to international markets and that would not be a good day for oil bears.
Earlier this week, a report by Reuters said that Sinopec, the world’s top refiner by capacity, has boosted purchases of Russia’s Far East crude for delivery in the third quarter as it looks to secure cargo arrivals amid continued shipping constraints in the Middle East.
State-run Sinopec has acquired as many as 30-40 shipments, or 241,000 to 320,000 barrels per day, of Russia's Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) for delivery between July and September.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
