China’s independent refiners look beyond Iran
Chinese independent refiners have turned to Iraq and Qatar for crude oil amid dwindling Iranian supplies, in a bid to replace the shortfall caused by US sanctions. The refiners purchased at least 12 million barrels of Iraqi Basra Medium and Heavy crude and 3 million barrels of Qatar's al-Shaheen crude from trading houses such as Mercuria, Totsa, and Trafigura.
Prices for the Iraqi crude were $12 to $20 per barrel above the ICE Brent benchmark, while the Qatari crude fetched a similar premium. The refiners' purchases signal a shift away from Iran, whose oil imports plummeted by nearly half in September, with no exports recorded for the first time since 2013. This trend comes as exports through the Strait of Hormuz recover, leading trading houses to lower prices in an effort to stimulate demand.
Written by urgent.news from The Economic Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
