Once Angola’s key customer, Chinese imports of Angolan crude and condensates in April fell to their lowest in over a decade, Kpler data shows.
Official data from China this week showed Russia continues to be its top oil supplier, including for April, as refiners cashed in on discounted shipments. A big casualty of this shift has been Angola.
In April, China imported about 15 million barrels of crude and condensates from Angola, down from the 18 million barrels it imported in the same month last year, and far from the roughly 33 million barrels it imported in April 2017, the data showed.
Separately, for the first time in 20 months, crude oil processing in China was also lower than in the same month last year, reflecting feeble refinery margins and a shoring up inventories.
“The latest data also confirm that oil demand in China is likely to lose significant momentum this year,” Commerzbank analysts wrote in a note this week.
