*China, the world’s top crude importer, took record volumes from Russia, Iraq and Iran for 2024, even as overall imports and refinery runs dipped.
*Russia, having surged ahead of Saudi Arabia for top spot in 2023 (MEES, 26 January 2024) strengthened its lead in 2024, according to freshly-released official Chinese stats. Imports of 2.16mn b/d from Russia were up by a modest 1.1% (24,000 b/d) on the previous record set a year earlier, but with Saudi Arabia seeing a 148,000 b/d (8.6%) fall to 1.57mn b/d, Russia widened its lead to almost 600,000 b/d (see chart & table for full data). Russia saw another bumper month of 2.22mn b/d for December, more than 700,000 b/d ahead of Saudi Arabia with 1.50mn b/d, and has now been top supplier for 20 straight months. (CONTINUED - 879 WORDS)
