According to the latest monthly update report of the Finnish Clean Air and Energy Research Center (CREA) on Russia's energy exports, Russia's oil exports to China in December 2025 increased by 23% compared to the previous month, while exports to India decreased by 29%.
CREA noted that Russia's oil exports to China increased by 11.7% in December compared to November, reaching 9.33 million tons. In value, exports increased by 3.6% to 3.91 billion USD. China increased its oil purchases from Russia the most in December.
According to data released by Chinese Customs, China imported 100.72 million tons of oil from Russia in 2025, with a cost of 49.8 billion USD. Russia is still China's largest oil exporter.
In 2024, Russia's oil exports to China increased by 1.3% compared to 2022, reaching 108.47 million tons.
Meanwhile, India, facing the risk of further US tariffs, restricted Russian crude oil imports in December, bringing total imports to their lowest level since the G7 set a price ceiling for Russian oil shipments insured at Western companies.
Since mid-December, Russia's oil flow to India has remained quite stable, at over 1 million barrels/day. However, this figure has decreased sharply compared to the daily average of 1.77 million barrels in November.
Meanwhile, exports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe increased again. According to CREA, the amount of Russian LNG purchased by France increased by 18% in December, and the amount of Russian LNG purchased by Spain even increased even more strongly, up to 27%.
All European Union (EU) member states are bound by the new law to completely cut Russian LNG imports by the end of this year. As a result, Russia's total LNG exports in December increased by 16% compared to November, reaching the highest level in 2025.
