Page 10 - AsianOil Week 43 2021

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Iran crude exports to China disputed

PIPELINES & IN a statement directly contradicting Iranian crude to China, an important diplomatic ally
TRANSPORT government officials, the nation’s Fars News in 2021, at least according to China’s General
Agency this week announced that Tehran was Administration of Customs (GAC).
still offloading in excess of 1mn barrels per day This is known to be causing some embarrass-
(bpd) of oil to China despite ongoing US sanc- ment to the more conservative elements in the
tions on the country and others doing business government of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
with Iran. in Tehran, who have for three years been push-
The Fars claim came a day after Tehran’s ing for improved relations with East Asia to help
Chamber of Commerce chairman, Mr. Masoud counter the ongoing sanctions.
Khansari, tweeted that sales to Beijing had plum- It is commonly believed, however, that Ira-
meted since late March – the start of the Iranian nian crude is still being shipped through third-
traditional calendar. party middlemen to avoid detection in much the
Using the social media site to say exports had same way previously banned Chinese PV panels
“drastically dropped” across the first half of 2021, were shipped through Taiwan, rebranded and
when compared against 2018 figures prior to the then sold on to Western buyers.
imposition of sanctions by the Trump Admin- Fars, in backing its claim, has pointed out
istration, Khansari claimed the total amount of that tanker tracking software and even OPEC
crude shipped to China now stood at around data support the fact that shipments to China
$11mn, equivalent to roughly 1,000 bpd. continue unabated.
In the year before US sanctions hit, Beijing Earlier this year a Bloomberg report also
purchased $9.5bn worth of crude. highlighted the possibility of middlemen
A day after the tweet by Khansari, Fars rebranding the oil as being from other nations
claimed that officials in the Tehran Chamber in the region prior to it being shipped between
of Commerce had made the claim as they were the two countries.
against the “neutralisation of US oil sanctions”, How this plays out over the next few months
continuing: “(W)hy does an entity such as the remains to be seen, especially in light of increas-
Tehran Chamber of Commerce, which is fully ing Chinese-US tensions over Taiwan, and
aware of the (full scope of the) Iran-China oil efforts to date by the Chinese Communist Party
trade, try to sabotage the relations between Iran to appease the US over Iranian sanctions by lim-
and China in the domestic sphere with such iting calls at Iranian ports by Chinese flagged
wrong information?” vessels and a ban on Iranian ships calling at Chi-
In the days since, Khansari has also gone on nese ports.
record as saying: “(W)ith the continuation of sanc- The Iranian government does not offi-
tions, the Iranian economy will lose more opportu- cially disclose numbers relating to oil
nities” in a thinly veiled reference to Saudi Arabia’s exports, although overall petrochemical
increased oil shipments east to China. capacity increased from 77mn tonnes in
In recent months, Saudi crude exports to 2019 to 90mn tonnes a year later, and is
Beijing have risen dramatically. Riyadh remains expected to reach in excess of 100mn tonnes
the largest oil exporter to China, a position it has by the end of 2021.
held for the past nine months uninterrupted, Figures from Tehran’s Ministry of Petroleum
with current figures up over 50% year on year. also indicate exports to be rising in a commensu-
The Fars-Tehran Chamber of Commerce rate manner, rising from 20mn tonnes two years
spat aside, officially Tehran has not exported any ago to 25mn tonnes last year.™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 43 28•October•2021