Published : 2026-03-02
China is the largest petroleum importer and the second-largest consumer. At present, apart from its own production of over 200 million tonnes of domestic goods, it also needs to import over 500 million tonnes of crude oil a year to meet demand. Which countries does imported crude oil come from?
Buying from across the globe, Russia providing the most
There are about 100 oil-producing countries in the world, of which about half can achieve commercial production scale.
According to data compiled by the media for 2025, China buys crude oil almost from all over the world, importing a total of 578 million tonnes of crude oil from nearly 50 countries, spreading across Asia, Europe, Africa, North and South America, and Oceania.
In 2025, China's largest source of crude oil is the major oil-producing nation of Russia, with which it shares a land border, providing over 100 million tonnes and accounting for 19.22% of total crude oil imports.
The second place is Saudi Arabia in 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 country ranked fourth may come as a surprise to many people: Malaysia in South East Asia. China's crude oil imports from this country are also over 64 million tonnes, only slightly less than from Iraq.
Top 11 Countries Account for 88%
Malaysia is indeed an oil-producing country, but its own crude oil production is nowhere near 64 million tonnes.
Therefore, reports suggest that a large part of it may originate from a certain major oil-producing country in the Middle East, being "laundered" and then sold to China as Malaysian crude oil. As for what this "laundering" entails, plenty of information can be found online.
Next are Brazil, the UAE, Oman, Angola, Kuwait, Canada, and Indonesia. Together with the top four countries, these 11 nations each export over 10 million tonnes to China, collectively accounting for approximately 88% of China's oil imports for 2025.
Additionally, there are some countries on the source list that people might be less familiar with, for example, the African nation of Gabon in 16th place, the South American country of Guyana at 23rd, and the Caribbean island nation of Trinidad and Tobago at 24th. Even for Oman at 7th and Angola at 8th, many people may not know their precise locations.
Geopolitical factors have major impact
It must be emphasised that the above list of crude oil source countries is for 2025, while the countries on the list have remained largely the same in recent years, their rankings have seen various changes.
For example, from 2019 to 2022, Saudi Arabia was ranked first. The US was ranked 11th in 2024 and fell to 20th in 2025, with its volume also dropping significantly from over 9.6 million tonnes to about 2.28 million tonnes.
Besides market and economic factors, the changes in ranking and import volume also involve geopolitics, which is not difficult to understand if one simply looks at the current international situation.
Finally, with China buying so much crude oil, how is it transported back to the country? What is the relationship between the "Malacca Dilemma" and China's oil imports? This will be discussed in a separate article.
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