China late last year soared past Japan as Saudi Arabia’s biggest crude customer and hasn’t looked back since. Chinese imports from Saudi have hit a series of records this year, with latest Chinese import data indicating a bumper 1.834mn b/d for August, the second highest on record after June’s 1.879mn b/d.

Saudi Arabia has been ahead of Russia as the number one supplier to China for six of the first eight months of 2019. For the year to date, Saudi Arabia with 1.58mn b/d (up 51.4%) is now comfortably ahead of Russia (1.49mn b/d, up 13.0%) (CONTINUED - 882 WORDS)