Which international locations does China get its oil from?｜China Petroleum Ⅴ | Human Geography | Enjoyable Reality

Published : 2026-03-02

China buys oil from everywhere in the world

There are about 100 oil-producing international locations on this planet, of which about half can obtain industrial manufacturing scale.

According to knowledge compiled by the media for 2025, China buys crude oil virtually from everywhere in the world, importing a complete of 578 million tonnes of crude oil from almost 50 international locations, spreading throughout Asia, Europe, Africa, North and South America, and Oceania.

In 2025, China’s largest supply of crude oil is the main oil-producing nation of Russia, with which it shares a land border, offering over 100 million tonnes and accounting for 19.22% of complete crude oil imports.

The 2nd place is Saudi Arabia within the Middle East, with over 78 million tonnes, accounting for about 14%. The third is Iraq, with 64 million tonnes, accounting for 11.26%.

The nation ranked 4th could come as a shock to many individuals: Malaysia in South East Asia. China’s crude oil imports from this nation are additionally over 64 million tonnes, solely barely lower than from Iraq.

Top 11 international locations account for 88%

Malaysia is certainly an oil-producing nation, however its personal crude oil manufacturing is nowhere close to 64 million tonnes.

Therefore, media reviews recommend that a big a part of it could originate from a sure main oil-producing nation within the Middle East, being “laundered” after which offered to China as Malaysian crude oil. As for what this “laundering” entails, loads of info could be discovered on-line.

Next are Brazil, the UAE, Oman, Angola, Kuwait, Canada, and Indonesia. Together with the highest 4 international locations, these 11 nations every export over 10 million tonnes to China, collectively accounting for about 88% of China’s oil imports for 2025.

Additionally, there are some international locations on the supply listing that folks could be much less conversant in, for instance, the African nation of Gabon in sixteenth place, the South American nation of Guyana at twenty third, and the Caribbean island nation of Trinidad and Tobago at twenty fourth. 

Even for Oman at seventh and Angola at eighth, many individuals could not know their exact places.

Geopolitical elements have main influence

It should be emphasised that the above listing of crude oil supply international locations is for 2025, whereas the international locations on the listing have remained largely the identical lately, their rankings have seen varied adjustments.

For instance, from 2019 to 2022, Saudi Arabia was ranked first. The U.S. was ranked eleventh in 2024 and fell to twentieth in 2025, with its quantity additionally dropping considerably from over 9.6 million tonnes to about 2.28 million tonnes.

Besides market and financial elements, the adjustments in rating and import quantity additionally contain geopolitics, which isn’t obscure if one merely seems on the present worldwide state of affairs.

Finally, with China shopping for a lot crude oil, how is it transported again to the nation? What is the connection between the “Malacca Dilemma” and China’s oil imports? This shall be mentioned in a separate article.

Read extra: Are petroleum and crude oil totally different? Does China measure in barrels or tonnes?｜China Petroleum Ⅰ

Read extra: Does China have oil? China is a serious oil-producing nation!｜China Petroleum Ⅱ

Read extra: How a lot does China spend on petroleum yearly?｜China Petroleum Ⅲ

Read extra: How a lot oil does China have? Which province produces essentially the most oil?｜China Petroleum Ⅳ