In November 2025, China significantly changed its crude oil import structure, greatly increasing purchases from alternative sources while reducing supplies from the Russian Federation amid international sanctions.
This is reported by Finway
Increase in Imports from Saudi Arabia and Iran
The total volume of maritime oil deliveries to China reached 12.38 million barrels per day, the highest level in the last 27 months. The main increase was provided by Saudi Arabia, which raised its exports to 1.59 million barrels per day, an increase of 345,000 barrels compared to the previous month. China is also actively increasing its imports of Iranian oil, which rose to 1.35 million barrels per day.
Decrease in Supplies from Russia
At the same time, maritime oil supplies from the Russian Federation decreased by 157,000 barrels per day, averaging 1.19 million barrels daily in November. The main reasons for the reduction in imports were decreased purchases by state-owned oil refineries in China and the implementation of limited import quotas for private refineries. Despite this, total crude oil imports to China in November increased by 4.88% year-on-year.
As noted by the Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service, 2025 was the first year since the start of the war when the extraction and processing of Russian oil steadily declined, resulting in the Russian budget missing out on tens of billions in oil and gas revenues.
Following the imposition of sanctions by the United States and the European Union against Rosneft and Lukoil in October 2025, Russia’s share in China’s oil import structure decreased from 14.7% to 11.2%. By December, Rosneft and Lukoil announced only three shipments to China each, indicating a sharp reduction in their presence in one of Asia’s key markets.
Ukraine also played an important role in changing the logistics of oil supplies. In particular, after a drone attack on the Black Sea terminal of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which sustained significant damage, Kazakhstan plans to directly export 50,000 tons of oil from the Kashagan field to China for the first time in December.