BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - The United States has imposed sanctions on Shandong Shengxing Chemical Co., Ltd, a China-based independent 'teapot' refinery, for purchasing more than a billion dollars' worth of Iranian crude oil.
Shandong Shengxing is an independent teapot refinery in Shandong Province that has received dozens of shipments of Iranian crude oil from shadow fleet vessels, some of which have been sanctioned for their role transporting Iranian petroleum.
Between March 2020 and January 2023, Shandong Shengxing sent more than $800 million in wire transfers to China Oil and Petroleum Company Limited, which was was an Iranian front company that aided in selling Iranian oil to China.
The United States is also imposing sanctions on several companies and vessels involved in facilitating Iranian oil shipments to China as part of Iran's 'shadow' fleet.
Iran relies on a network of opaque ownership and ship management companies to manage a shadow fleet of tankers that conduct ship-to-ship transfers to obfuscate Iran's petroleum shipments to China.
The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, also designated the Cameroon-flagged RESTON, and the Panama-flagged BESTLA, EGRET, NYANTARA, and RANI, which have shipped billions of dollars' worth of Iranian oil, including to China-based refineries, generating vital revenue for the Iranian regime and its proxies.
This is the sixth round of U.S. sanctions targeting Iranian oil sales since President Donald Trump issued National Security Presidential Memorandum on February 4.
'Any refinery, company, or broker that chooses to purchase Iranian oil or facilitate Iran's oil trade places itself at serious risk,' said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. 'The United States is committed to disrupting all actors providing support to Iran's oil supply chain, which the regime uses to support its terrorist proxies and partners.'
OFAC is also issuing an updated sanctions advisory to assist the global shipping and maritime industry in identifying sanctions evasion practices related to the shipment of Iranian-origin petroleum, petroleum products, or petrochemical products and in implementing sanctions compliance best practices to guard against such sanctions risks.
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