Page 9 - MEOG Week 04 2022

MEOG POLICY & SECURITY MEOG

China reports Iranian oil imports

despite still applicable US sanctions

IRAN CHINA has reported its first imports of Ira- few weeks. It attributed the information to a
nian crude oil in a year despite still applicable trade source and ship tracking specialist Vortexa
US sanctions aimed at parties entering into oil Analytics.
transactions with Iran. “There were reports of importing Iranian
Data on the imports was included in a Janu- crude earlier – but hush hush somewhat. Now
ary 20 release put out by the General Administra- I think the Chinese are testing openly to see
tion of Chinese Customs. It stated that 260,312 US response,” Tilak Doshi, managing director
tonnes (1.9mn barrels) of Iranian crude oil were of Doshi Consulting in Singapore, was cited as
delivered to China in December. saying.
The last Iranian oil inflows recorded by Chi- Theoretically, by importing Iranian oil despite
na’s customs authority were registered in Decem- the threat of US sanctions, China can indicate to
ber 2020 at 520,000 tonnes (3.8mn barrels), the global market that international oil supplies
Reuters said. are moving higher and can thus cool the rising oil
Iran’s oil business with China is usually con- price, which some analysts forecast will hit more
ducted on the grey market to avoid sanctions. than $100 per barrel this year.™
Some analysts’ estimates have assessed China’s
imports of Iranian oil at more than 500,000 bar-
rels per day (bpd) on average in latter months of
last year. Buyers are tempted by crude offered at
a big discount, even if it means riding the risk of
taking a hit from US sanctions.
Various reports have described how Iranian
crude has been exported to China marked as
oil from countries including Oman, the United
Arab Emirates and Malaysia.
Reuters reported on January 20 that China
has offloaded nearly four million barrels of
Iranian crude oil into state reserve tanks in the
southern port city of Zhanjiang over the past

Tehran says it wants full nuclear

deal not a half-baked relaunch

IRAN IRAN’S nuclear deal negotiators will not accept an “all or nothing” approach.
anything short of a full return to the 2015 agree- “Iran is in Vienna to reach an agreement that
ment, Said Khatibzadeh, spokesman for the is strong and reliable,” Fars news agency quoted
Iranian Foreign Ministry, said on January 24. him as saying. “An interim agreement or any-
Tehran, he added, was not interested in striking thing like it has never been on our agenda.”
an interim agreement. Reuters, meanwhile, on January 24 reported
The Iranian side was responding to reports on that the US was unlikely to strike an agreement
the ongoing Vienna talks aimed at reviving the with Iran to save the JCPOA unless Tehran
nuclear deal (formally known as the Joint Com- releases four US citizens that Washington says
prehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA). Various it is holding hostage. Tehran denies holding any
media reported that the US was exploring a soft prisoners for political reasons.
relaunch of the deal to get the process – under US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said
which Iran curbs its nuclear development pro- on January 20 that “modest progress” had been
gramme and guarantees it will be kept purely made at the negotiations in Vienna but that “it’s
civilian in exchange for the dropping of certain really now a matter of weeks, where we deter-
sanctions – moving again. mine whether or not we can return to [US and
Khatibzadeh made it clear that Iran wanted Iran] mutual compliance with the agreement”.™

Week 04 26•January•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9