Russia was again top crude supplier to China for November, with 2.19mn b/d, the seventh straight month it has been ahead of Saudi Arabia for top spot and the eighth month this year that volumes have topped 2mn b/d – a never-before breached level. At 2.13mn b/d for 11M 2023, Russia-China volumes are up 22% year-on-year and some 380,000 b/d ahead of the 1.75mn b/d figure for Saudi Arabia. Though the latter figure is down only fractionally on the 1.76mn b/d year-ago level, Saudi-to-China volumes have dipped well below the year-to-date average for each of the last three months, including 1.61mn b/d for November, as the kingdom has trimmed output in line with Opec+ commitments.
Iraq was number three for both November (1.04mn b/d) and year-to-date (1.18mn b/d, up 8%), regaining top spot from ‘Malaysia’, which usually disguises sanctioned Iran and Venezuelan volumes. ‘Malaysia’ supplied a whopping 1.39mn b/d in October, second only to June’s all-time high 1.51mn b/d (MEES, 24 November). November, at 960,000 b/d, was nevertheless the ninth straight month that ‘Malaysia’ has supplied over 900,000 b/d – some three times the southeast Asian country’s actual crude output with average 11M 2023 volumes of 1.10mn b/d up 67% on 2022’s then-record 660,000 b/d. (CONTINUED - 265 WORDS)