OREANDA-NEWS   At the beginning of this summer, for the first time in almost three years, China did not purchase American oil - the last time a monthly pause in supplies took place was in August 2022, RIA Novosti found out after studying Chinese customs statistics.

The highest monthly purchases this year were in March, when their volumes immediately doubled to February, amounting to $ 326.2 million, and then declined for two months in a row, until in June China decided to pause purchases of "black gold" in the United States.

At the same time, oil products from the United States continued to arrive, but showed a rather noticeable negative trend compared to the previous month - a fourfold decrease to $ 7.4 million.

Overall, China maintained its June oil imports, plus or minus, at May levels, with an increase of only 4%, to $24.2 billion.

At the same time, several Middle Eastern oil powers and other Asian neighbors of China were able to "earn" on the situation of strained relations between China and the United States.

Thus, Saudi Arabia increased oil exports to China by 36% by May, to $ 3.87 billion, Malaysia - by one and a half times, to 3.4 billion, the United Arab Emirates - by 18%, to 1.38 billion, Kuwait - by 15%, to $ 732 million.
At the same time, Russia retained its status as the largest oil exporter to China, having slightly increased supplies since the end of spring to $ 3.95 billion.