Chinese Oil Buyers Reduce Russian Purchases

Chinese refiners are canceling Russian oil cargos and adopting a wait-and-see attitude after the latest U.S. sanctions on Russia’s oil industry. Bloomberg reports, citing traders, that state-owned majors including Sinopec and PetroChina had canceled previously ordered Russian oil cargos, while the so-called teapots, or independent refiners, had stopped buying Russian crude to avoid getting penalized for violating the U.S. sanctions. The publication cited Rystad Energy as estimating that some 45% of Chinese imports of Russian crude have been…