China set for record Russian oil imports in March, Kpler says

China is on track to import a record amount of Russian crude this month, bolstered by large volumes of Sokol oil which have been shunned by India due to concerns over US sanctions, according to Kpler.

The Asian nation is poised to receive about 1.7 million barrels a day of Russian crude this month, data tracked by Kpler show. Volumes of Sokol are expected to triple from a month earlier to an all-time high of 379,000 barrels a day.

China has been a consistent buyer of Russian crude since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and has recently taken advantage of cheaper Sokol after flows of the grade to India eased. Imports of ESPO are expected to be at 882,000 barrels a day this month, the highest since January 2023, according to Kpler.

It’s unclear if the Sokol cargoes will all end up with actual buyers or discharged into bonded storage, traders said. They cited hesitation from Chinese banks to be involved in the trade amid the latest US sanctions on tankers. Kpler includes flows into Myanmar as imports by China, and actual arrivals may differ at the end of the month due to destination changes.

A backlog of Sokol cargoes that built up off Singapore and South Korea is slowly clearing, Bloomberg reported last week. At its height, the stranded oil amounted to as much as 18 million barrels after Indian refiners shunned the grade.