Who bought the world's crude in 2024
China, the USA and India took more than half of the crude that importing countries reported to the UN. Russia was the third-largest supplier, and nine-tenths of its crude went to two buyers.
Every year, countries report their imports to the United Nations, partner by partner. We loaded the 2024 figures for crude oil and the main fuels into our statistics page. Here is what stands out for crude.
Three buyers took more than half
The importing countries in the data reported 2,160 million tonnes of crude for 2024, worth about $1.25 trillion. Three of them took 54 % of it:
- China: 553 million tonnes, a quarter of the total.
- USA: 376 million tonnes, nearly two-thirds of it from Canada.
- India: 242 million tonnes.
South Korea (137) and Japan (115) follow. The largest European buyers in the data are the Netherlands and Germany, at about 79 million tonnes each.
The suppliers
Ranked by what these importers bought from them, the largest suppliers were Saudi Arabia (288 million tonnes), Canada (253), Russia (214), Iraq (172), the USA (159) and the United Arab Emirates (154).
Canada's place comes almost entirely from one flow: 236 million tonnes to the USA, most of it by pipeline. The UN figures count pipeline and sea trade together, which is why that pair is the largest single flow in the data.
Russia's crude went east
Of the 214 million tonnes of Russian crude in the data, 108.5 went to China and 92 to India: more than nine-tenths between them. Most of the rest went by pipeline to landlocked Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Implied prices were close in both large markets, about $79 a barrel to China and $78 to India, against about $83 for Saudi crude delivered to China.
Reading the figures with care
- We use the buyers' reports. Each flow is what the importing country declared, valued at its border including freight. Where a buyer filed nothing, the seller's report stands in. A supplier's ranking here is not its total exports: it counts only the countries in the data.
- Some reports are wrong. Three large crude imports reported by Thailand imply a price of $2 to $7 a barrel, almost certainly a unit error. We leave out every flow priced below $25 or above $300 a barrel, so Thailand's total is understated.
- Some countries report late. The United Arab Emirates and Viet Nam had not filed 2024 crude figures, so their 2023 reports stand in.
The same page has gasoline and naphtha, and diesel, jet fuel and fuel oil, each counted on its own. The USA is the largest exporter of both groups in the data; Russia is the second-largest supplier of diesel, gasoil, jet fuel and fuel oil, with Türkiye its largest buyer.