This comes despite the fact that Oil has been kept away from the burning tariff war between the two countries, but Chinese refineries have avoided buying crude Oil from the United States.

An independent Chinese refiner also has suspended crude oil purchases from the United States and has now turned to Iran as one of its sources of crude, media reports, citing an official from the refiner, Dongming Petrochemical Group.

the source said that Beijing is planning to slap tariffs on U.S. crude oil imports and replace them with West African and Middle Eastern crude, including crude from Iran. China has already said that it will not comply with U.S. sanctions against Iran and it seems to be the only country for now in a position to do this

"Before (the trade war) we had a good job but now it has completely stopped," Shi Chunlin, president of CMES, one of the major US crude carriers, told China. He added that the trade war is also forcing China to diversify the supply of soybeans, as Beijing now buys most soybeans from South America.

US crude imports to China, in August, reached 334,000 barrels per day, while the world's second-largest economy imports a large part of its Oil needs from Russia, which rose from 665,000 bpd in 2014 to 1.2 million bpd last year. Beijing also imports crude Oil from Persian Gulf producers, led by Saudi Arabia.

After the import freeze from the United States, China is expected to make up for shortages from Saudi Arabia and Russia, the world's top oil producers. Washington and Beijing have exchanged tariffs. In September, the United States imposed customs duties on Chinese goods worth 200 billion dollars, and China responded with a 60-billion-dollar charge on US goods.