Saudi Arabia just about stayed ahead of Russia as China’s top crude oil supplier in 2020, despite China’s imports from the kingdom falling to 1.63mn b/d for December. This was down from 2.06mn b/d, the third highest monthly figure on record, in November.

Overall, China took 1.69mn b/d from Saudi Arabia in 2020, just 20,000 b/d more than the 1.67mn b/d it imported from Russia (see chart 1 and table below for full data). (CONTINUED - 700 WORDS)