That dollar total for mainland China’s spending on crude petroleum oil increased by 53.4% compared to $335.4 billion five years earlier for 2019.
Year over year, China’s imports of crude oil depreciated by -3.9% 2023 versus $535.3 billion in 2022.
In contrast, a much lesser $61.2 billion worth of crude oil was exported from China to the rest of the world down by -4.8% from 2022.
Crude oil is China’s second-most valuable imported good after integrated electronic circuits and microassemblies, but well ahead of imported iron ores and concentrates, gold, petroleum gas, then copper ores and concentrates.
One hundred and three countries supplied crude petroleum oil to mainland China in 2023. That number includes relatively minor suppliers like France, Iran, Spain and Sweden.
The top 5 exporters (Russia, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates) furnished over half (51.3%) of China’s total crude oil imports purchased in 2023.
Approaching one-third (30.3%) of Chinese imported crude oil originated from Middle Eastern nations ranging from $53.8 billion provided by leading supplier Saudi Arabia to $6.5 billion worth of unprocessed petroleum from Kuwait.
OPEC Crude Oil Supplied to China in US Dollars
China’s overall $514.4 billion worth of imported crude oil purchases was impacted by price-setting action initiated by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). However, that economic dependency continues to erode due to an expanding international cohort of crude oil suppliers.
OPEC countries accounted for 31.3% of mainland China’s total spending on crude oil imported in 2023, compared to 37.2% in 2019.
Year over year, the difference is also pronounced. OPEC was responsible for a 36.4% share for the prior year in 2022. This means that China’s buying from OPEC members decreased by 5.1% to the 31.3% metric recorded during 2023.
For both OPEC and non-OPEC sales, crude oil is priced in American dollars on world markets. Economists explain that the US dollar is the only fiat currency with a large enough financial infrastructure to support the global trade of crude oil.
Based on the average exchange rate for 2023, the Chinese yuan depreciated by -2.5% against the US dollar since 2019 and diluted by -5.1% from 2022 to 2023. The weaker Chinese yuan makes China’s imported crude oil paid for in stronger US dollars relatively more expensive when converted starting from Chinese yuans.
China’s Top Providers of Imported Crude Oil
Below are the top 15 countries that supplied 88.6% of the crude petroleum oil imported into mainland China during 2023.
- Russia: US$94 billion (18.3% of China’s crude oil imports)
- Saudi Arabia: $55 billion (10.7%)
- Malaysia: $45.5 billion (8.8%)
- Iraq: $35.4 billion (6.9%)
- United Arab Emirates: $34 billion (6.6%)
- Oman: $28.5 billion (5.5%)
- Brazil: $23.3 billion (4.5%)
- Australia: $22.9 billion (4.4%)
- United States: $22.4 billion (4.3%)
- Indonesia: $21.6 billion (4.2%)
- Qatar: $19.6 billion (3.8%)
- Angola: $18.8 billion (3.7%)
- Kuwait: $16.5 billion (3.2%)
- Turkmenistan: $9.6 billion (1.9%)
- Mongolia: $8.9 billion (1.7%)
The 88.6% of Chinese imported crude oil during 2023 for the 15 main crude petroleum providers reflects a downtick from the 93.9% recorded by China’s 15 major crude oil suppliers one year earlier in 2022.
Fastest-Growing Suppliers of China’s Imported Crude Oil
The value of Chinese purchases of crude oil from China’s top 15 suppliers amounted to a subtotal $455.9 billion in 2023, decelerating by an average -2.5% from the $467.6 billion worth of imported crude petroleum bought from the top 15 providers during 2022.
As listed below, the top 15 list did see some gainers.
- Mongolia: Up 69.1% since 2022
- Australia: Up 24.2%
- Brazil: Up 24.2%
- United States of America: Up 17.2%
- Malaysia: Up 16.8%
- Russia: Up 10.1%
These 6 among the top 15 crude oil exporters increased their international sales of crude oil to mainland China compared to 2022.
The leading decliners among China’s top 15 sources of crude oil were mainly suppliers in the Middle East: Kuwait (down -35.5% from 2022), Angola (down -18.5%), Saudi Arabia (down -16.7%), United Arab Emirates (down -14.8%), Oman (down -14.7%) and Iraq (down -10%).
Widening the scope to include the 50 leading crude oil suppliers to mainland China, there were 20 gainers from 2022 to 2023. Those increases ranged from impressive increases for crude petroleum suppliers in Mexico (up 130,723%) and Mozambique (up 884%) to more modest advances for providers in Argentina (up 77.9%), Nigeria (up 72.9%), India (up 69.4%) and Mongolia (up 69.1%).
Leading decliners for this subset of suppliers were China’s crude oil sources in Norway (down -88.6% since 2022), Guyana (down -71.1%), Egypt (down -49.7%), Uzbekistan (down -47.4%) and Kuwait (down -35.5%).
See also Crude Oil Exports by Country, Crude Oil Imports by Country, China’s Top 10 Exports and China’s Top 10 Imports and Saudi Arabia’s Top 10 Exports
Research Sources
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook Country Profiles. Accessed on March 27, 2024
International Monetary Fund, Exchange Rates selected indicators (Domestic Currency per U.S. dollar, period average). Accessed on March 27, 2024
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on March 27, 2024
Wikipedia, List of crude oil products. Accessed on March 27, 2024