Adds background

SINGAPORE, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Chinese refiner Yanchang Petroleum has bought 3 million barrels of crude from the United Arab Emirates and Kazakhstan for January arrival, several trade sources said, after suspending Russian oil purchases over concerns about Western sanctions.

The state-owned company bought 2 million barrels of Abu Dhabi Murban crude from Swiss trader Mercuria and 1 million barrels of CPC Blend from Vitol, they said on Tuesday. The prices were not immediately known.

Yanchang issued a tender last week to buy non-Russian crude for deliveries between December and mid-February.

The refiner, located in the landlocked northern province of Shaanxi and backed by the provincial government, can process 348,000 barrels of crude per day.

It joined other Chinese state-owned energy majors such as Sinopec which suspended Russian crude purchases in October after Western sanctions on top Russian oil producers.

Yanchang is one of the largest refiners in inland China and has an annual import quota of 3.6 million metric tons, or 26 million barrels.

The refiner had been a regular buyer of Russian oil, typically taking in one shipment per month, usually Far East export grades ESPO blend or Sokol.

(Reporting by Siyi Liu, Florence Tan and Chen Aizhu in Singapore; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

((siyi.liu@thomsonreuters.com;))