US Energy Secretary Rick Perry told CNBC on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia is increasing its oil production to meet needs arising from sanctions on Iran. “Our allies, Saudi Arabia for instance, are increasing their production to meet these needs relative to the Iran sanctions,” Perry said in an interview with CNBC, adding that the message for US allies around the world is to not do business with Iran. Washington had announced ending waivers for countries that import oil from Iran. The US asked Iranian oil buyers to stop Iran oil imports by May 1st or face sanctions, ending six months of exemptions that allowed the top eight buyers of Iranian oil, mostly in Asia, to continue to import limited quantities. The White House said it was working with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to ensure oil markets received maintained sufficient supplies. In parallel, Brent oil held steady near $70 a barrel as record Chinese imports and tighter global supplies eased concerns about a deepening trade spat between the United States and China. US sanctions on crude exporters Iran and Venezuela, as well as supply cuts by OPEC and Russia, also supported prices. Brent crude futures were at $69.78 per barrel by 0902 GMT, down 10 cents or 0.14 percent. Chinas crude imports in April hit a record for the month of 10.64 million barrels per day (bpd), customs data showed on Wednesday. That is an 11 percent rise from the same month last year. The country is the worlds largest oil importer. On the other hand, Russian oil producers’ supply to Transneft’s pipeline system between May 1 and 6 were down by some 650,000 barrels per day from their April daily average, an industry source familiar with the data told Reuters. Transneft handles around 85 percent of all Russian crude. Russian production is seen declined to 11.19 million barrels per day on May 1-6 from 11.23 million barrels per day in April on average, another industry source familiar with production data told Reuters. Tainted oil detected late last month has forced Russia to shut the Druzhba pipeline to Central Europe and Germany. As of Tuesday, the line had been closed for almost two weeks and it was unclear when normal operations would resume.