Russia’s oil exports have taken a massive hit, with an estimated 400,000 barrels a day affected as Chinese refiners retreat from the market. This “buyers’ strike” has caused ESPO crude prices to plunge.
The retreat is comprehensive. State-owned firms Sinopec and PetroChina are canceling cargoes, reacting to new US sanctions on Russian producers Rosneft and Lukoil.
The private “teapot” refiners are also shunning Russian crude, terrified by the recent UK/EU blacklisting of Yulong Petrochemical.
This is a clear victory for Western policy aimed at cutting off Moscow’s war funding.
However, the market is navigating this in a “muddle.” A high-stakes summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping concluded with a conspicuous silence on the oil issue, leaving refiners in a state of maximum uncertainty.