China refused to supply American oil from fields in Alaska in favor of Russian supplies – Russia's willingness to supply raw materials at a significant discount played a role, Bloomberg notes , citing data from Vortexa.
During a period of rapid economic growth after long covid lockdowns, supplies from Alaska were at their peak in the period 2020-2021, but after the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine, American oil began to lose ground. Before the war, oil supplies from the northern US state were at a maximum in two decades, but already in August 2022 they came to naught and were replaced by oil from Russia.
“American oil just ran out of buyers. Those buyers who used to take oil from ANS switched to cheaper supplies from Eastern Siberia, ”Vortexa analyst Rohit Rathod said.
Moreover, US oil from Alaska is trading at a record premium to US benchmark crudes since 2014, which makes the supply of this raw material additionally unprofitable for China. The publication notes that a similar situation arose in India, which refused Canadian supplies in favor of Russian ones. Moscow has increased supplies to China, India and Turkey amid the imposition of sanctions against Russian oil. However, Moscow is unable to fully replace their supplies to Western markets, neither in terms of export volumes, nor in terms of income. In early December, sanctions against Russian supplies will come into force – the capping mechanism and the European oil embargo. These measures are expected to further reduce Moscow's oil export revenues.