China has managed to weather the ongoing oil supply crisis so far, thanks largely to trends taking shape well before tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz came to a near-standstill on Feb. 28. China is the world’s largest oil importer and the single-largest buyer of Mideast Gulf crude but was also flush with strategic and commercial inventories going into the Mideast war. Policy measures and a rapidly electrifying road transport sector have helped insulate China from the supply shock to date. But the picture is not so rosy in other sectors, particularly petrochemicals, where the first signs of cracks in China’s demand resiliency may be starting to show. China’s oil demand averaged 16.52 million barrels per day in 2025 but is trending significantly lower so far in 2026, according to Energy Intelligence calculations based on official Chinese data. In April, Energy Intelligence calculates, China’s apparent oil demand fell below 15 million b/d for the first time since February 2023, when the country was just emerging from a second wave of strict Covid-19 lockdown measures. April 2026’s apparent 14.94 million b/d of oil demand was down a steep 8.6% versus the prior month and down 5.5% year on year, calculations show. Beijing decided soon after the war started to ban exports of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to protect its domestic market, which has seen no shortages so far. Demand for each of those products decreased month on month in April, although it increased for gasoline and jet fuel from a year earlier by 2.0% and 8.6%, respectively.