China's large oil refinery abandons purchasing Russian oil — Reuters
Photo: One of China's largest oil refineries has refused to purchase oil from Russia (Getty Images)
The large Yanchang Petroleum refinery has refused to purchase Russian oil in its latest tender for crude oil supplies for the period from December to mid-February, according to Reuters.
The Yanchang Petroleum refinery is located in the northern province of Shaanxi, which has no access to the sea. Previously, it regularly purchased Russian oil, usually one batch per month. According to experts, this was usually a mixture of ESPO export grade Far East or Sokol, one of the traders said.
A series of recent Western sanctions on Russian oil supplies has led Chinese state-owned oil companies and some Indian refineries to avoid buying Russian oil due to fears of secondary sanctions.
Yanchang Petroleum, which can process 348,000 barrels of crude oil per day, is one of the largest refineries in inland China and is entitled to an annual import quota of 3.6 million metric tons, or 26 million barrels of oil.
The refinery usually receives imported crude oil from the port of Tianjin, near Beijing, from where the oil is delivered to it by rail.
Chinese refiners began to refuse to purchase Russian oil after the US and other Western countries imposed sanctions on leading Russian producers and some of their customers.
Against the backdrop of new Western sanctions and successful Ukrainian attacks on oil refineries, Russian refined fuel exports fell to a record low in October this year.
The US also imposed new sanctions against Russia earlier. The restrictions apply to the two largest Russian oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, as well as their subsidiaries in Russia.
