China’s state-owned Sinopec Corp, the world’s biggest refiner, has ramped up purchases of Far East Russian oil to compensate for Middle East supplies diminished by the Iran war, Reuters reports, citing multiple trade sources and ship tracking data.

Sinopec’s purchases of Russian oil, which is cheaper than rival grades from sources such as Brazil and West Africa, have helped it maintain relatively stable throughput and ship surplus fuel on strong export margins, despite China limiting overseas sales of fuel products from March to protect domestic supply amid the war-related trade disruptions.

Sinopec has bought a total of 30 to 40 shipments, or about 241,000 to 320,000 barrels per day (bpd), of Russia’s Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) blend for July to September deliveries, according to several of the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. That equates to 5pc to 6pc of the refiner’s processing capacity of 5.2 million bpd.

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