Hmm, no evidence Saudi is the most expensive when we have these long term contract. The spot purchases are the most expensive. Also keep in mind china works with Saudis to build these refineries so they are mostly tuned to taking in Saudi crude for refining. The Iran and Russian purchases are basically replacing the spot market purchases.No... Obviously the cheapest option would be to take it all from Russia and Iran. Saudi oil is the most expensive. And yet China is paying extra to get some Saudi oil as well. Isn't it obvious?
Longer term, they will just build more new refineries and export more of the end products.
Aside from that, china is also snapping up us crude from spot market because they are cheap right now due to Biden decision for releasing strategic reserves.
It's about controlling the market and making money off that.
China is exporting a lot of refined oil product since November. I have been posting this on the non renewable thread for weeks now. The refineries were running at like 70% capacity because the govt was being stupid. So ramping up import just increases refinery utilization.The only fact that I can see is that Iranian exports are up and that's despite Europe buying less from Russia. How do you explain that? I think it has multiple reasons including the ones I mentioned. If shipments are up it seems very dubious to claim that the discount relative to the benchmark is increasing
At the same time, their spot imports are down. So that account for the differences. More import from Iran is good for china, huge profits on those.
Iran produces like over 200 BCM of natural gas a year and capable of more than that with Chinese investment. China really needs to get working here if Iran plays ball.Iran actually imports gas from Turkmenistan. They probably need a partner like China to be able to build a pipeline from the southern gas fields to the north. A southern pipeline to give Pakistan cheap energy would make so much more sense and could rescue the state from failure. As an added benefit, Pakistan wouldn't need USD to pay for it. Apparently Iran is now threatening to fine Pakistan for not completing their part of the pipeline, which is ridiculous. It's such a big missed opportunity it's painful to watch.