Page 7 - MEOG Week 24

MEOG PIP e LI nes & trans P ort MEOG

Iranian shipments to China

rebranded in Malaysia

Iran LIKE its Latin American ally, Venezuela, Iran tons (equal to 377,000 barrels per day) to China
appears to be rebranding its crude oil des- in the four-month period in question. This is 3.3-
tined for China as Malaysia to circumvent US fold increase compared with the same period in
sanctions. the previous year.
Data provided to Radio Farda by oil tanker Last week in a special report Reuters said
tracking and intelligence firm Kpler indicates Venezuela, which is also sanctioned by the
that Iran has suddenly increased oil exports to United States, is selling oil to China through
Malaysia since January. At the same time, official Malaysia where the information on ownership
figures show a huge drop in Iranian oil exports to and source are altered before shipment to make
China in the first four months of 2020. This leads the oil’s origin appear to be Malaysian.
to suspicions that the oil destined for Malaysia is Between July 1 and Dec. 31 2019, tankers
actually ending up in China. delivered at least 18 shipments totalling 19.7
Iran has exported 2 million barrels of crude million barrels of rebranded Venezuelan crude
oil, worth between $60 to $70 million to Malay- – representing more than 5 per cent of Venezue-
sia between January and April. According to la’s total exports in 2019 worth around $1 billion
the same data Iran delivered another 7.1 mil- -- to Chinese ports.
lion barrels in May as well, bringing the total oil China’s 2019 imports of Venezuelan oil aver-
shipments to Malaysia to 9.1 million or roughly aged 283,000 barrels a day according to data
60,000 barrels per day. Reuters analysed. But Chinese customs reported
Malaysia, however, has never been among just 228,700 barrels a day coming from Vene-
traditional buyers of Iranian oil and the ship- zuela. This means some Venezuelan oil reaching
ments are not reflected in the reports of the China was rebranded.
Malaysian Customs for this period. In the same manner, official statistics of the
This indicates that Iranian oil reaching Chinese Customs indicate about 91,000 barrels
Malaysia somehow changes ownership and is of oil imports from Iran in the said four-month
sent to another destination, most likely China. period while in the previous year this had been
In the first four months of 2019 Malaysia 561,000 barrels per day.
exported under 1.9 million tons of oil to China. Before the reintroduction of US sanctions in
however, the Chinese Customs statistics show May 2018, Iran exported more than 2.5 million
that in 2020 Malaysia has exported 6.2 million barrels of crude oil.™

Week 24 17•June•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P7