US hits firms moving Iranian oil and major China crude terminal

[LONDON] The US sanctioned more than 50 individuals, firms and vessels involved in exporting Iranian oil and liquefied petroleum gas, including a key crude-import terminal.

The latest designations by the Treasury Department mark the latest effort by Washington to target the Beijing-Tehran energy trade. The agency’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said that the network helped facilitate billions of US dollars in Iranian commodities sales, using shadow-fleet tankers, offshore terminals and middlemen from Asia to the Middle East.

By targeting Rizhao Shihua Crude Oil Terminal, the Trump administration is signalling its intent to disrupt one of the largest remaining outlets for Iran’s sanctioned crude, much of which ultimately ends up in Chinese refineries despite US restrictions.

“The Treasury Department is degrading Iran’s cash flow by dismantling key elements of Iran’s energy export machine,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

The terminal, on China’s east coast, can handle 56 million tonnes of oil a year – more than one million barrels a day, according to a company website. Rizhao Shihua is half owned by Sinomart KTS Development, a subsidiary of Sinopec Kantons Holdings that is 60 per cent held by Sinopec Kantons International Limited, itself wholly owned by Unipec. A Chinese petrochemical company was also designated.

“The question is whether these Chinese companies can build a firewall and deal only with other entities outside the reach of Western sanctions,” said Ben Cahill, energy analyst at the University of Texas in Austin. “It does seem the Chinese national oil companies are quite wary of sanctions exposure, compared with independent refiners.”

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Calls to Sinopec, the owner of Unipec, went unanswered outside normal office hours in Beijing and an email to the company was not immediately returned. BLOOMBERG