Sutirtha Patranabish
Sources said that in May, China bought a record amount of crude oil from Russia. China increased its oil purchases from Russia at a time when the West was economically cornered by the war against Ukraine.
Statistics show that China has increased its purchases of crude oil by about 55 percent this time compared to May last year. China bought a record 8.42 million metric tons of crude oil in May. Despite surpassing Saudi Arabia, China has bought extra crude oil from Russia.
Russia, meanwhile, launched an operation in Ukraine on February 24. Beijing, however, did not want to be publicly condemned. Chin did not even want to call it aggression.
On the contrary, China has accused the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization of provoking the war in Ukraine.
However, China has increased not only fuel oil, but also natural gas imports. A Bloomberg report last week said Russian oil was currently being shipped to Asia. Most of it is for China and India. Meanwhile China wants to buy more energy resources from Russia.
According to sources, Deputy General Manager of China’s National Petroleum Corporation Huang Yongzhang on Thursday held a video call with the Vice President of Russia’s Gazprom.