An oil tanker unloads crude oil at a port terminal in Qingdao, eastern Shandong province, China, March 11, 2026.
– | AFP | Getty Images
BEIJING – China stressed on Monday that it has sufficient energy resources as the Iran war restricts oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz and U.S. President Donald Trump presses China to help secure the vital waterway.
China’s energy supply is “relatively strong” and forms a “relatively good” foundation for responding to external market fluctuations, National Bureau of Statistics spokesperson Fu Linghui told reporters in Mandarin, translated by CNBC.
The bureau also announced that China’s domestic crude oil production in January-February increased by 1.9% year-on-year to 35.73 million tons.
President Trump said on Sunday that China should support efforts to restore the flow of oil through the Hormuz waterway before a planned visit to Beijing later this month, the Financial Times reported. He also said he may postpone his travel plans to China.
Since the Iran war began more than two weeks ago, oil prices have soared to more than $100 a barrel, near a four-year high, as oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz have stalled in most countries. However, Iran sent more than 11 million barrels of oil to China through the strait during this time.
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Trump argued that China should help secure the flow of oil through the strait, since China gets 90% of its oil through the waterway, according to the report.
However, analysts estimate that China relies on the strait for only about 40-50% of its seaborne oil imports, and point out that oil transport through Hormuz accounts for only 6.6% of China’s total energy consumption.
As of January, the Chinese government held an estimated 1.2 billion barrels of onshore crude oil reserves, one of the world’s largest reserves and enough to meet three to four months’ worth of demand.
