By Rebecca Feng
The vast majority of Iran's roughly 1.6 million barrels a day of crude exports is bound for China, but the world's second-largest economy has spent months shoring up its supply, cushioning itself from any potential shocks from this weekend's conflict.
Iranian crude is mostly bought up by small, independent "teapot" refineries in China, which are well supplied in the near term and are unlikely to turn to the mainstream market to compete with other buyers for crude, analysts said.
Even before the conflict started on Saturday, Iran had accelerated crude-oil loading onto vessels in preparation for days of zero or low loadings, according to commodities data provider Kpler.
The current level of Iranian oil on water stands at around 190 million barrels, equivalent to about five months of Chinese demand for Iranian crude, according to Muyu Xu, senior oil analyst at Kpler. That means that Chinese teapot refineries have five months to find alternative supplies even if there is a regime change in Iran, Xu said.
As a whole, China has spent months stockpiling crude, much of which is sourced from Russia and Iran at deep discounts. The country has built up around 1.5 billion barrels of strategic petroleum reserves, enough to cover around 200 days of oil imports, according to Michael Haigh, head of commodities research at Société Générale.
"Disruptions to Iranian flows are therefore manageable for China," Haigh added.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 02, 2026 09:00 ET (14:00 GMT)
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