China talks up oil sufficiency as Trump seeks Beijing’s help on Hormuz
An oil tanker unloads crude oil from a terminal at Qingdao port in China’s eastern Shandong province on March 11, 2026.
– | Afp | Getty Images
BEIJING — China on Monday insisted it has sufficient energy supplies as the Iran war restricts the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, and U.S. President Donald Trump pressed Beijing to ensure the security of the critical waterway.
China’s energy supply is “relatively strong” and provides a “relatively good” basis for responding to foreign market volatility, National Bureau of Statistics spokesman Fu Linghui told reporters in Mandarin translated by CNBC.
The bureau also announced that China’s domestic crude oil production increased by 1.9 percent year on year to 35.73 million metric tons in the January-February period.
Trump said Sunday that China should help efforts to restore oil flows in the Hormuz waterway before a planned trip to Beijing later this month. Financial Times reported. He also said he may postpone his travel plans to China.
Crude oil prices have reached almost 4-year highs, exceeding $100 a barrel, as the Strait of Hormuz has stopped flowing in most countries since the start of the Iran war more than two weeks ago. However, during this period, Iran sent more than 11 million barrels of oil to China through the strait.
In the report, Trump claimed that Beijing should help ensure the flow of oil through the strait because China gets 90 percent of its oil through the waterway.
But analysts estimate that China relies on the strait for only 40% to 50% of its seaborne oil imports, noting that oil shipments passing through Hormuz account for only 6.6% of China’s total energy consumption.
As of January, Beijing had an estimated stockpile of 1.2 billion barrels of crude oil, one of the largest reserves in the world and enough to meet demand for three to four months.
