Ilya Vedmedenko17:02, 23.10.25

3 min.0

A sharp drop in demand for Russian oil from India and China will negatively impact Moscow’s revenues.

Chinese state-owned oil giants have suspended purchases of Russian oil transported by sea after the US imposed sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, the Kremlin’s largest oil companies, Reuters reported, citing its sources .

According to the report, Chinese oil companies PetroChina, Sinopec, CNOOC and Zhenhua Oil will refrain from purchasing Russian oil transported by sea, at least in the short term.

This move comes as refineries in India, the largest buyer of Russian seaborne crude, plan to sharply reduce their oil imports from Russia. This is also being done to comply with US sanctions.

A sharp drop in oil demand from Russia’s two largest customers will negatively impact Moscow’s revenues and force the world’s largest importers to seek alternative sources of supply, leading to higher global prices.

It is worth saying that Russia will not be left without money anyway.

China imports approximately 1.4 million barrels of Russian oil per day via seaborne shipments. A significant portion of this oil is purchased by independent refineries, including small operators.

Estimates of purchases by state-owned refineries vary widely.

Vortexa Analytics estimates Chinese state-owned companies will purchase less than 250,000 barrels per day of Russian oil in the first nine months of 2025, while consulting firm Energy Aspects puts the figure at 500,000 barrels per day.

China is also known to import approximately 900,000 barrels of Russian oil per day via pipelines—all of which goes to PetroChina, which several traders say is likely to be largely unaffected by the sanctions.

(c)UNIAN 2025