China is stepping in where India left after signing the trade deal with the US in early February. According to traders and ship-tracking data, China has purchased record oil, with BRICS member Russia filling the gap that India left. Russian crude oil shipments are estimated to be around 2.07 million barrels a day into China in February alone. This surpasses January’s shipments of 1.7 million barrels per day.

The development comes after India stopped procuring Russian oil under the terms and conditions of the US trade deal. India was asked to procure crude oil from Venezuela, which is now controlled by the US, for which it agreed. BRICS member China is now Russia’s top client for oil purchases, and the seaborne shipments will be loaded this month. Reports state that Russia discounted the shipments by $9 to $11 per barrel.

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BRICS: Russia Gets a Boost as China Steps up Oil Procurement

Refiners in China are now the world’s largest consumers of US-sanctioned oil from Russia, Iran, and Venezuela. BRICS member China has allowed private players, also known as teapots, to buy a record number of oil from Russia and other sanctioned countries. “For the quality you get from processing Russian oil versus Iranian, Russian supplies have become relatively more competitive,” said a senior Chinese trader.

However, China is careful about procuring oil from its BRICS counterpart Iran due to military confrontation and favors Russia more. “For teapots, Russian oil looks more reliable now as people are worried about loadings of Iranian oil in case of a military confrontation,” Li said. This gives Russia the benefit in sales while Iran is reeling under a conflict both internally and externally.

BRICS is dominating the oil sector with a surplus in production output and an equal number of consumers. In addition, the discounted rates due to sanctions are helping Russia, China, and India, among other countries, the most.