KEY POINTS:

• Russia has become China’s biggest supplier of oil as the country sold discounted crude to Beijing amid sanctions over the Ukraine war.
• Imports of Russian oil rose by 55 per cent from a year earlier to a record level in May, displacing Saudi Arabia as China’s biggest provider.
• China has ramped up purchases of Russian oil despite demand dampened by Covid curbs and a slowing economy.
• Chinese companies, including state refining giant Sinopec and state-run Zhenhua Oil, have increased their purchases of Russian crude in recent months after being offered heavy discounts.
• The imports into China, which include supplies pumped through the East Siberia Pacific Ocean pipeline and shipments by sea, totalled nearly 8.42m tonnes last month.
• That pushed Saudi Arabia – formerly China’s biggest source of crude oil – into second place with 7.82m tonnes.
• Russia earned almost $100 billion in revenue from fossil fuel exports in the first 100 days of the country’s invasion of Ukraine, despite a fall in exports in May.
• The European Union made up 61 per cent of these imports, worth approximately $59 billion.