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The US has imposed sanctions on two Chinese petrochemicals groups for allegedly importing Iranian crude oil, in the latest salvo of President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign on the Islamic republic.
The state department said it had put sanctions on Huaying Huizhou Daya Bay Petrochemical Terminal Storage for violating American sanctions by buying and storing Iranian crude oil shipped to China on a ship already under sanctions.
The Treasury department separately put sanctions on Chinese refiner Luqing Petrochemical for buying Iranian crude oil transported on vessels linked to the Houthis and Iranian military.
It said the sanctions on Luqing Petrochemical marked the first time Washington had imposed such penalties on a “teapot” refiner — the private Chinese refineries that are the main buyers of Iranian crude oil.
“Teapot refinery purchases of Iranian oil provide the primary economic lifeline for the Iranian regime, the world’s leading state sponsor of terror,” said Scott Bessent, US Treasury secretary. “The United States is committed to cutting off the revenue streams that enable Tehran’s continued financing of terrorism and development of its nuclear programme.”
Trump this month wrote to Iran’s supreme leader to urge him to reach a deal with the US on Tehran’s nuclear programme. He has threatened “terrible” consequences if Tehran does not agree to a diplomatic effort but Iran has not responded to the overture.
Last month, Trump said he was reimposing his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, which would include sanctions on entities shipping Iranian oil to China. The goal is to force Iran to the negotiating table under more favourable terms to the US, though it is not clear if Tehran is interested in doing so.
Iran’s crude oil exports have more than trebled in the past four years, from a low of 400,000 barrels a day in 2020 to more than 1.5mn b/d in the first three quarters of 2024, with nearly all shipments going to China, according to the most recent information from the US Energy Information Agency.
Iran, a member of the Opec oil-exporting cartel, has total production capacity estimated at about 3.8mn b/d. China, the world’s largest buyer of foreign crude oil, imported about 11mn b/d last year.
Iran’s hardliners have been working to undermine the country’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian and preclude negotiations with the US. Trump has tapped his special envoy Steve Witkoff to oversee the Iran file, and his team has begun some work, but diplomats say Trump has not yet designated a daily point person for the issue.
“So long as Iran attempts to generate oil revenues to fund its destabilising activities, the United States will hold both Iran and all its sanctions-evading partners accountable,” said Tammy Bruce, state department spokesperson.
The US said the sanctions were part of a stepped-up campaign designed to eliminate Iranian oil exports, including to China.
The Treasury said it was also putting sanctions on 19 other entities, including the Chinese and Hong Kong owners of ships that are part of a “shadow fleet” of vessels that supply refineries in China.
The US remains concerned about co-operation between Tehran and Beijing over everything from oil supplies to Chinese exports that facilitate weapons development in Iran.
The Financial Times reported in January that two Iranian vessels carrying a chemical ingredient for missile propellant were preparing to sail from China to Iran in the following weeks. The first vessel, an Iranian-owned ship called the Golbon, later departed China and has since arrived at Bandar Abbas, a port in southern Iran on the Gulf.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on Friday slammed the US’s “imposition of illegal unilateral sanctions” and called on Washington to “stop interfering with and undermining normal trade and co-operation” with Iran.
“China will take all necessary measures to firmly protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises,” she added.
Additional reporting by Wenjie Ding in Beijing
