China snaps up 10 million barrels of Saudi crude in rare spot tender

China just went shopping for Saudi oil in a way it almost never does. Four of the country’s biggest energy players purchased roughly 10 million barrels of Saudi crude, specifically Arab Medium and Arab Heavy grades, through a rare spot tender with cargoes slated for prompt loading. The buyers read like a who’s who of Chinese oil: PetroChina, Sinochem Group, Unipec (the trading arm of state giant Sinopec), and privately held Rongsheng Petrochemical. A bulk buy against a backdrop of falling imports What makes this purchase especially interesting is the timing. Saudi crude shipments to China have been running well below pre-war levels, weighed down by geopolitical tensions connected to the US-Israeli conflict involving Iran. Those tensions have kept crude prices elevated and previously pushed Chinese buyers to trim their term contract nominations from Saudi Aramco. July loadings from Saudi Arabia to China were projected at a record low of around 12 million barrels, roughly 387,000 barrels per day. So the decision to scoop up 10 million barrels on the spot market, nearly doubling what was already on the books for July, signals something more than routine restocking. This latest tender ...