An oil tanker unloads crude oil at a terminal in a port in Qingdao, east China’s Shandong province, on March 11, 2026.
– | Afp | Getty Images
BEIJING – China stressed on Monday that it has ample energy resources as war with Iran has blocked the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, and US President Donald Trump pressed Beijing to help secure the critical waterway.
China’s energy supply is “relatively strong” and forms a “relatively good” foundation for responding to external market volatility, Fu Lingui, a spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics, told reporters in Mandarin Chinese, as translated by CNBC.
China’s domestic crude oil production rose 1.9% year-on-year to 35.73 million metric tons in the January-February period, the bureau announced.
Trump said Sunday that China should help efforts to restore oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz ahead of a planned trip to Beijing later this month, The Financial Times reported. He said he may delay his China travel plans.
Crude oil prices have fallen over $100 a barrel to a 4-year high as flows through the Strait of Hormuz to most countries have been halted since the Iran war began two weeks ago. However, during that time Iran has sent more than 11 million barrels of oil to China through the strait.
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Trump asserted that Beijing should help ensure the flow of oil through the strait as China gets 90% of its oil through waterways, the report said.
However, analysts have estimated that China relies on the Strait alone for about 40% to 50% of its seaborne oil imports, and pointed out that oil transit through the Hormuz accounts for only 6.6% of China’s total energy consumption.
As of January, Beijing had an estimated 1.2 billion barrels of onshore crude stockpiles, one of the world’s largest reserves and enough to meet demand for three to four months.
