The Chinese companies – Petro China, Sinopec, CNOOC and Zhenhua – will according to sources at least in the short term stop importing Russian oil that comes to China by sea.
It is unclear what the purchase stop means in pure numbers, but according to Reuters, the four account for a smaller part of the total Chinese import. China imports a total of around 2.3 million barrels per day from Russia, of which 900,000 come via pipelines.
The four giants' joint import is estimated to be between 250,000 and 500,000 barrels per day.
Most smaller, somewhat more independent, refineries are also believed by analysts to pause imports to analyze how the sanctions affect them. But many of them are believed to continue buying Russian oil, according to Reuters.
Also from India, vague information about a partial import stop is coming. US President Donald Trump claimed last week that India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to stop buying Russian oil. But from the Indian side, it has not been confirmed yet.
According to the analysis firm Kpler, around 36 percent of all Indian oil imports come from Russia, which means around 1.8 million barrels per day. Kpler writes in a report that "on paper it is easy to replace Russian oil, but it is politically and economically dangerous" – among other things, inflation is believed to increase if imports are redirected.
Rosneft and Lukoil together produce around 5.3 million barrels of oil per day, which is just over 5 percent of global production.
