China gets less oil from Saudi Arabia as the OPEC leader ships more barrels to other parts of Asia

• Some Chinese oil refiners will receive less oil from Saudi Arabia next month than they had asked for, Bloomberg reports.
• More barrels from the OPEC leader will go to Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and India.

Some Chinese oil refiners are set to receive fewer barrels of crude oil than they asked for next month from Saudi Arabia, as the OPEC+ leader works to fulfill requests from other buyers in Asia, Bloomberg reports.

China's actual deliveries will fall short of what they asked for, but Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and India will get the volumes they sought, with some even getting more than they asked for, refinery officials told Bloomberg.

As more buyers look to move off from Russian supplies, they have turned to Saudi Aramco for more oil. Strong refining margins meant July supplies of Saudi oil were particularly attractive for customers in Asia, per the report.

Meanwhile, although a top US energy official warned against it, India has ramped up its purchases from nearly zero to around 800,000 barrels per day of Russian oil. China, too, has snapped up more Russian crude since the war in Ukraine began. Neither India nor China have condemned Russia's actions against Ukraine.

Last month, the European Union agreed on a Russian oil ban that is set to cut about 90% of Russian oil to the bloc by the end of the year. Still, President Vladimir Putin vowed not to shutter oil wells even as Western nations continue to distance themselves from Russian energy.

Surging demand from Asian buyers has helped make up for the impact of sanctions on Russian exports. Russia just slashed its interest rates for the fourth time in two months as the nation's oil sales have eased some of the pain from sanctions.