WASHINGTON (Reuters): The U.S. on Thursday issued new Iran-related sanctions, targeting entities including for the first time a Chinese “teapot”, or independent refinery, and vessels that supplied crude oil to such processing plants.
It was Washington’s fourth round of sanctions on Iran’s oil sales since President Donald Trump said in February he was re-imposing a “maximum pressure” campaign including efforts to drive down the country’s exports to zero. Trump aims to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and funding militant groups.
The refinery Treasury targeted for sanctions is China-based Shandong Shouguang Luqing Petrochemical Co., Ltd.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the refinery bought oil from vessels linked to Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement, which the U.S. designated this month as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, and the U.S.-designated Iranian Ministry of Defense of Armed Forces Logistics.
China is the largest importer of Iranian oil. “Teapot” refiners are private Chinese refineries that are the primary purchasers of Iranian oil.
Tehran says its nuclear energy program is for peaceful purposes, while Western powers say its enrichment of uranium to levels approaching weapons-grade has no logical civilian applications.
Treasury also imposed sanctions on 12 entities, and identified eight vessels as blocked property it said were responsible for shipping millions of barrels of Iranian oil to China. These vessels are part of Iran’s “shadow fleet” of tankers that supply the private refineries.
It also placed Wang Xueqing, who it said is linked to the refinery, on the specially designated nationals, or SDN, list. Americans are prohibited from doing business with people placed on that list, and their U.S. assets are blocked.
The vessels Treasury blocked included Panama-flagged Aurora Riley and the Catalina, and the Barbados-flagged Brava Lake.
The State Department said it was imposing sanctions on an oil terminal in China called Huaying Huizhou Daya Bay Petrochemical Terminal Storage, for buying and storing Iranian crude oil from a sanctioned vessel.
