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FILE PHOTO: Oil and gas tanks are seen at an oil warehouse at a port in Zhuhai, China October 22, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo - 

Saudi Arabia held its position as the biggest supplier of crude oil to China for an 11th month in a row in October, with volumes up 19.5per cent from a year ago, customs data showed on Sunday.

Saudi oil arrivals totalled 7.1 million tonnes, or 1.67 million barrels per day (bpd), data from the General Administration of Customs showed, which is 19.5per cent higher than 1.4 million bpd a year and compares with 1.94 million bpd in September.

Inflows from Russia, including pipeline oil, inched up by 1.3per cent from a year ago to 6.6 million tonnes last month, or 1.56 million barrels per day (bpd). That compared with 1.49 million bpd in September.

The growth in Russian supplies, primarily of its flagship oil ESPO blend, followed China's release of fresh import quotas in August and October that allowed independent plants to lift purchases of one of their favourite grades.

Still, China's overall October crude oil imports fell to the lowest in three years amid Beijing's broad cap on independent refiners' imports.

Supplies from Brazil were down 53.2per cent from a year earlier, while those from the United States slumped by 91.8per cent.

Reuters reported China's imports of Iranian oil have held above half a million barrels per day on average between August and October, as buyers judge that getting crude at cheap prices outweighs any risks from busting U.S. sanctions.

Most of these barrels were passed on as exports from Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia, weighing on competing supplies from Brazil and West Africa.

Official data has consistently shown China has imported zero oil from Iran or Venezuela since start of 2021, as national oil companies stayed on the sidelines on worries over U.S. sanctions//CNA