Following the US and other countries' blacklisting of Moscow's leading producers and some of its clients, Chinese oil refiners are refusing to accept Russian cargoes. According to traders, state-owned behemoths like Sinopec and PetroChina Co. are remaining neutral after cancelling some Russian shipments following US sanctions against Rosneft PJSC and Lukoil PJSC last month. Smaller private refiners known as "teapots" are also delaying because they are worried about facing the same sanctions as Shandong Yulong Petrochemical Co., which was recently placed on a blacklist by the EU and the UK.
Among the Russian crudes impacted is the popular ESPO grade, whose price has plummeted. According to consulting firm Rystad Energy AS, the buyers' strike is affecting about 400,000 barrels per day, or up to 45% of China's total oil imports from Russia.

Russia has solidified itself as China’s biggest foreign supplier, in part because its oil is so heavily discounted due to the penalties imposed by other countries after the invasion of Ukraine.
In an effort to halt the war by cutting off Moscow's oil profits, the US and its allies are now tightening those sanctions on Russian producers as well as their clients. Since China is the largest importer of oil in the world, any restrictions on procurement from its neighbour are probably going to help other suppliers.
These might include the United States, which at a summit last week between leaders Donald Trump and Xi Jinping reached a historic trade truce with Beijing. However, Moscow is not entirely at a loss as a result of the sanctions.

Due to a lack of alternatives, blacklisted Yulong, whose deliveries have been cancelled by western suppliers, has primarily relied on Russian oil. According to Rystad, other private refiners are keeping an eye on developments and avoiding moves that might result in comparable penalties. In any event, since tax adjustments reduced their use of other feedstocks, teapots are now facing a scarcity of import permits for crude oil. Even if teapots were ready to evade sanctions, that would probably make it more difficult for them to buy Russian oil for the rest of the year.Furthermore, if anything, the Trump-Xi encounter has made everything more confusing. No public readouts addressed what to do about Russian oil, despite the leaders' ability to create new ground rules for trading in commodities like semiconductors, rare earths, and soybeans.
According to the White House, China would essentially halt the implementation of new export restrictions on rare earth metals and discontinue its investigations into US firms involved in the semiconductor supply chain.

Investors in the green economy are hoping to finally move past years of severe underperformance as a result of the sharp recovery in clean-tech equities.
A long-standing gold tax benefit is being eliminated by China, which could be a blow to buyers in one of the biggest bullion markets in the world.