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https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/see-how-china-weathered-the-iran-oil-shock-2c367cd8
BUSINESS ● ENERGY & OIL
看看中国如何度过伊朗石油危机
Charts illuminate the mystery of how Beijing managed to slash crude imports —tamping down global prices—and survive
图表揭示了北京如何设法削减原油进口（压低全球价格）并生存下来的谜团
By Chuqin Jiang and Yijing Shen | Graphics by Ashley Cai Aug. 21, 2026 10:00 pm ET
A sharp decrease in China’s oil imports has been pivotal to keeping oil prices down since the start of the war in Iran. That, in turn, has helped curb inflation and support the global economy.
自伊朗战争爆发以来，中国石油进口的急剧减少是压低油价的关键。这反过来又有助于抑制通货膨胀并支持全球经济。
How China slashed imports by nearly 50% and survived has been a mystery, even with Beijing’s long-term strategy of energy self-reliance.
尽管北京采取了能源自力更生的长期战略，但中国如何在削减近 50% 的进口量后幸存下来仍然是一个谜。
Some clues are now emerging. Fuel-export curbs spurred refineries to cut back on processing. Travelers flew less, deterred by price increases. A shift toward coal paid off. And Chinese authorities tapped oil reserves that had been socked away before the war.
现在一些线索正在显现。燃料出口限制促使炼油厂削减加工量。由于价格上涨，旅客乘坐飞机的次数减少了。向煤炭的转变得到了回报。中国当局还利用了战前被吸走的石油储备。
China’s oil purchases remain at their lowest level in nearly a decade. These charts help explain how China did it.
中国的石油购买量仍处于近十年来的最低水平。这些图表有助于解释中国是如何做到的。
进口大幅削减
China, the world’s largest oil importer, purchased around 11 million barrels a day in 2025, with half that amount coming from Middle East suppliers including Iran, according to energy analytics company Vortexa.
根据能源分析公司 Vortexa 的数据，全球最大的石油进口国中国到 2025 年每天购买约 1100 万桶石油，其中一半来自包括伊朗在内的中东供应商。
Soon after the war began in late February, China’s crude-oil imports fell sharply. From February to June, China slashed imports by 5.8 million barrels a day, a 48.9% drop. Levels remained low even with a July rebound.
2 月下旬战争爆发后不久，中国原油进口大幅下降。2 月至 6 月，中国每天减少进口 580 万桶，下降 48.9%。即使 7 月份出现反弹，水平仍然较低。
中国平均每日石油进口量（按来源地）
Source: Vortexa
炼油厂撤退
China’s widespread adoption of electric vehicles has reduced domestic demand for fuel oil. Many of the country’s refiners adapted to this change with an established economic model: What China can’t consume, it exports.
中国电动汽车的广泛采用减少了国内对燃料油的需求。中国的许多炼油厂采用既定的经济模式来适应这一变化: 中国不能消费的东西就出口。
The country sells gasoline, diesel and jet fuel and is a top exporter of petrochemical feedstocks, such as ethylene, that are used for manufacturing plastics, packaging materials and other everyday goods.
该国销售汽油、柴油和喷气燃料，是乙烯等石化原料的最大出口国，这些原料用于制造塑料、包装材料和其他日常用品。
But after the war began, Beijing restricted fuel exports.
但战争开始后，北京限制燃料出口。
Chinese exports of fuel 中国燃料出口
Source: China’s General Customs Administration
资料来源：中国海关总署
The export restrictions pushed Chinese refiners to cut back on crude-processing activities.
出口限制迫使中国炼油商削减原油加工活动。
By May, the average run rate across 49 state-owned refineries—the share of capacity actively processing crude oil—had dropped to 71.6%, the lowest level since the Covid-19 pandemic, according to S&P Global Energy Platts. The production of refined oil fell
by 5.6% and of plastics products by 4.9% in the first half of 2026.
S&P Global Energy Platts 的数据显示，截至 5 月，49 家国有炼油厂的平均开工率 (积极加工原油的产能比例) 已降至 71.6%，这是自 Covid-19 大流行以来的最低水平。2026 年上半年，成品油产量下降 5.6%，塑料制品产量下降 4.9%。
Change in oil processing volume from a year earlier
石油加工量同比变化
Note: January and February are published as one data point to avoid disruption caused by the Spring Festival, a major holiday.
注: 为避免春节这一重大节日造成的干扰,1 月和 2 月作为一个数据点发布。
Source: National Bureau of Statistics
资料来源：国家统计局
航空旅行下降
Since the war in Iran began, fewer people traveling within China have been taking the plane.
自伊朗战争爆发以来，乘坐飞机在中国境内旅行的人越来越少。
The war drove up airfares around the world as fuel costs surged. While Beijing curbed jet-fuel exports and kept more at home, domestic flights within China got more
expensive, too, including higher fuel surcharges.
由于燃料成本飙升，战争推高了世界各地的机票价格。尽管北京限制航空燃油出口并将更多的燃油留在国内，但中国境内的国内航班也变得更加昂贵，包括更高的燃油附加费。
China’s domestic flight passenger numbers fell 8% in May and 7% in June from a year earlier. Meanwhile, passenger rail remained resilient, sheltered from the oil market on an electric grid powered mainly by coal and renewables.
5 月和 6 月中国国内航班客运量同比分别下降 8% 和 7%。与此同时，客运铁路仍然保持弹性，在主要由煤炭和可再生能源供电的电网上免受石油市场的影响。
Change in passenger count from a year earlier, by transit type
按交通类型划分的乘客数量较上年同期的变化
Sources: Civil Aviation Administration of China; China Railway
资料来源：中国民用航空局；中国铁路总公司
使用更多煤炭
Even before the war, China was increasingly tapping into its vast coal reserves to make oil, gasoline and other products. The amount of refined products made from coal in 2024 was equivalent to refining nearly 300 million barrels of crude—or around a
month of crude-oil imports that year.
甚至在战前，中国就越来越多地利用其丰富的煤炭储量来生产石油、汽油和其他产品。2024 年，由煤炭制成的精炼产品数量相当于精炼近 3 亿桶原油，相当于当年一个月的原油进口量。
Coal-rich provinces in northwestern China, encouraged by the government, are seeing a boom in new coal-to-chemical projects. In the Xinjiang region, where coal prices are among the lowest in the country, production of naphtha and diesel from coal nearly doubled in 2025 from the previous year.
在政府的鼓励下，中国西北煤炭资源丰富的省份新煤化工项目蓬勃发展。在煤炭价格全国最低的新疆地区，2025 年煤炭石脑油和柴油产量将比上一年增加近一倍。
The investment left China well prepared for wartime disruptions. After the war began, China’s coal-to-chemical industry had a valuable buffer from rising oil prices, and the benefit of higher prices for their products.
这项投资让中国为应对战时破坏做好了准备。战争开始后，中国的煤化工行业从油价上涨中获得了宝贵的缓冲，并从产品价格上涨中受益。
China’s coal-to-chemical production 中国煤化工产量
Notes: Includes China’s four main products: oil, gas, olefins and ethylene glycol. Aggregated data from 2023 was not available.
注：包括中国四大主要产品：石油、天然气、烯烃和乙二醇。无法获得 2023 年的汇总数据。
Sources: China’s National Energy Administration; China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation; China Energy Investment Corporation
资料来源：中国国家能源局；中国石油和化学工业联合会；中国能源投资集团公司
动用充足的储备
Chinese oil demand for the second quarter of 2026 declined by just 1.6 million barrels a day from the same period last year, according to S&P Global Energy. That is a modest drop next to the plunge in imports.
标准普尔全球能源公司的数据显示，2026 年第二季度中国石油需求较去年同期仅下降 160 万桶 / 日。与进口暴跌相比，这是一个小幅下降。
Many economists say the explanation must lie with China’s vast crude-oil reserves.
许多经济学家表示，原因一定在于中国庞大的原油储备。
No one knows the exact size of the reserves—China won’t say, and it stores some crude underground. Analysts put the total, including strategic petroleum reserves, oil held in refineries and the commercial reserves that represent the largest share of China’s stockpile, at between 1 billion and 1.4 billion barrels.
没有人知道储量的确切规模——中国不会透露，而且它在地下储存了一些原油。分析人士估计，包括战略石油储备、炼油厂持有的石油以及占中国库存最大份额的商业储备在内，石油储备总量在 10 亿至 14 亿桶之间。
Beijing began stockpiling cheap Russian and Iranian oil in 2025, well before the Iran war. China injected an average of 1.1 million barrels a day into its oil reserves last year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated. The stockpiling continued in March and April with oil that had left the Persian Gulf before the war started.
2025 年，早在伊朗战争爆发之前，北京就开始储存廉价的俄罗斯和伊朗石油。美国能源情报署估计，中国去年平均每天注入 110 万桶石油储备。三月和四月继续储存战争开始前离开波斯湾的石油。
China has since started to draw from its reserves, data from Vortexa show.
Vortexa 数据显示，中国此后已开始动用外汇储备。
China’s oil inventory, by reserve
中国石油库存（按储备）
Note: Data are through Aug. 16
注：数据截至 8 月 16 日
Source: Vortexa
Since the start of May, China has withdrawn around 56 million barrels from its commercial reserves and 15 million barrels from refineries.
自 5 月初以来，中国已从其商业储备中撤出约 5600 万桶，并从炼油厂撤出 1500 万桶。
Meanwhile, according to Vortexa, China’s on-the-ground strategic reserve remains largely untouched.
与此同时，据 Vortexa 称，中国的实地战略储备基本未受影响。
Appeared in the August 22, 2026, print edition as ‘How China Weathered Oil Shock From Iran War’.
出现在 2026 年 8 月 22 日的印刷版《中国如何抵御伊朗战争带来的石油冲击》。
Chuqin Jiang is a Singapore-based China researcher for The Wall Street Journal.
蒋楚钦是《华尔街日报》驻新加坡的中国问题研究员。
She previously covered local news in Hong Kong, San Francisco, and New York, and holds degrees in data journalis…
Yijing Shen is a China researcher at The Wall Street Journal in Singapore. She previously interned at Reuters’ Beijing Bureau and South China Morning Post in Hong Kong focusing on diplomacy and geopolitics in East Asia. Yijing graduated from Georgetown University with an M.A. in Asian studies and earned a bachelor’s degree in politics an…
Ashley Cai is a graphics reporter with The Wall Street Journal, specializing in data analysis and visualization. Ashley first joined the Journal as an intern in summer 2024 and also has worked at the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Pudding. She is a graduate of Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design, where she…
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