Russia became the largest oil exporter to China in August, with crude oil shipments up 50 percent year-on-year, official data showed on Thursday.
Latest data from the General Administration of Customs showed that China's crude oil imports from Russia stood at 4.64 million tons in August, surpassing Saudi Arabian crude at 4.36 million tons.
The increase in Russia's oil exports to China have come as no surprise, as Russia is trying to reduce its reliance on the European market, according to Lin Boqiang, director of the Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University.
Lin said the increase also comes as China is trying to expand its oil import channels, in order to ensure energy security because heavy reliance on imports from the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Africa, which all have to use similar transport routes, is not conducive to China's energy security.
Also, "communications and cooperation between China and Russia have improved, which indirectly contributed to the increase in oil imports," Lin told the Global Times on Thursday. Russia's oil exports to China also benefited from China's rising number of small refineries, domestic news portal ifeng.com reported Thursday, citing general manager of Petromatrix Olivier Jakob.
Dozens of local oil refineries have obtained crude oil import licenses since July 2015, directly boosting the country's crude oil imports, according to the report.
In the first seven months of 2016, Saudi Arabia exported to China a daily average of 163,700 tons of crude oil, followed by Russia of 159,600 tons and Angola of 146,000 tons, domestic news outlet comnews.cn reported in September.
