China cut oil imports hard — and why it is not and may never rush back.
China cut crude imports from 11.7 million b/d in February to just under 9 million by late May, and by May imports hit 7.8 million b/d — the lowest since 2018 — with state refinery run rates at 66.3%, a record low for the dataset.
China’s 3.6 million b/d import cut, combined with a 3.5 million b/d surge in non-Gulf exports led by the US, offset about 70% of the lost Gulf barrels. This is why the largest supply disruption in oil-market history produced ~$100 Brent instead of the $200 everyone predicted.
Why did this happen and What will happen
1. Simple price rationality. China built a ~1 billion barrel stockpile buying cheap crude in 2023–25. Buying at $95–110 wartime prices when you’re sitting on reserves bought at $70–80 is value destruction.
2. The cut is partly permanent and the permanent shift.
A meaningful share of the wartime demand destruction was already happening and won’t come back. EVs took a record 62.9% of new Chinese car sales in May 2026. EV adoption has displaced ~430,000 b/d of gasoline, and electricity has reached 27.4% of China’s final energy consumption. The China EV fleet was already displacing over 1 million b/d of implied oil demand, rising by roughly 600,000 b/d over the following 12 months — and trucking electrification is now hitting diesel too. The war revealed and accelerated the shift.
3. Strategic Strength.
Strategic value — every month of low imports is a message to Washington that the energy weapon will not work on Beijing.
Oxford Institute for Energy Studies’ May 2026 comment “China’s crude levers” by Michal Meidan. Rigorously models China oil imports. Conclusion that with 5% run cuts China’s crude requirement could fall to ~7.9 mb/d, seaborne imports could be sustained around 8 mb/d for months, and refiners have already shifted diesel/naphtha yields 3–4 percentage points in months — with the chemical feedstock (naphtha/LPG) squeeze as the hidden vulnerability.
Recent Chinese and industry data confirm that China’s coal chemical sector is now a major pillar of petrochemical feedstock supply. Coal‑to‑chemicals entered 2026 on strong footing, with high operating rates and output of major coal‑chemical products rising y/y. Chinese industry reports that coal-to-olefin, coal-to-methanol, coal-based calcium carbide PVC now enjoy significant margins. Utilization rates should rise. A 2024 analysis estimated around 276 Mt of coal were converted into chemicals, oil and gas. Of that, coal-to-oil, coal-to-natural gas, coal-to-olefin, and coal-to-ethylene glycol capacity was estimated at 138 Mt coal, with a coal conversion capacity of
120 Mt of coal, replacing 38.1 million tons of oil and gas equivalent. In 2026 China plans to bring on 4.55 Mt of new polypropylene capacity and 6.2 Mt of new polyethylene capacity, and that coal-based polymer lines have been running at relatively high utilization in early 2026 because stable coal prices provide a cost advantage over
oil-linked routes. 50 million tons of oil per year would be 1 million barrels of oil per day.
China will stay at 2-3 million bpd below pre-war levels and then this will decline over the coming years as they electrify trucking and shift their economy.
CHINA and the World Shifting from Oil Intensive Industry to Electricity Intensive AI
China growing at 3–4% with a shrinking, aging population and a national priority on AI is a China whose marginal energy demand is electrons, not molecules. Old-model growth (construction, diesel trucking, ICE cars, commuting workers) was oil-intensive. The new-model growth (data centers, chip fabs, EVs, robotics, an older population that drives less) is electricity-intensive — and China generates electricity from domestic coal, solar, wind, hydro, and nuclear, not imported crude.
Chinese labs like Zhipu are already training frontier models entirely on domestic Huawei chips. Oil is becoming, for Beijing, a legacy input to be minimized, stockpiled, and price-arbitraged, not a growth constraint
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
