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Page added on June 22, 2013
China’s Iran crude imports jump ahead of US sanctions waiver
* China’s May crude imports up 49.5 pct from April
* Iran imports jump in final month before U.S. waiver renewed
* Iran crude imports up 6.4 pct in May from year ago
* Jan-May Iran crude imports up 10 pct from same period 2012
China’s average daily crude imports from Iran jumped nearly 50 percent in May from the previous month, back around levels before sanctions were slapped on the Middle Eastern country over its disputed nuclear programme two years ago.
The jump in China’s imports of Iranian crude to 555,557 barrels per day (bpd) came just before the United States renewed the country’s waiver on U.S. sanctions aimed at cutting off Iran’s oil revenues and bringing it to the negotiating table.
But industry sources with knowledge of China’s crude imports said the surge from Iran may be due to the timings of cargo arrivals and how they were counted by the General Administration of Customs (GAC). The sources said China’s two main importers – Sinopec Corp and Zhuhai Zhenrong – do not usually vary their term crude imports widely month-to-month.
China, the world’s second biggest oil consumer, bought 2.36 million tonnes of Iranian crude in May, equivalent to about 555,557 bpd, data from the GAC showed on Friday.
That was up 49.5 percent from the 371,500 bpd of Iranian crude that China imported in April, the data showed. The May level rose 6.4 percent from 521,936 bpd a year earlier.
China and other buyers of Iranian oil including India, Japan and South Korea have been pressured by U.S. and European sanctions since early last year to cut imports.
The United States in early June renewed waivers on sanctions for China and other Asian countries in exchange for their reducing purchases of crude from Iran.
China’s imports for the first five months of the year were up about 10 percent from the same period a year ago. The import figures for May and year-to-date contrasted sharply with China’s oil shipments from Iran in 2012, when the intake of Iranian barrels was about 438,448 bpd, down 21 percent versus 2011.
The U.S. and European measures aimed at Iran’s oil exports cut them to their lowest in decades in May and have been costing the country billions of dollars in lost revenue per month. Washington is now seeking to cut Iran’s oil shipments further through tighter sanctions.
India, Iran’s second largest customer, cut its Iranian crude imports 12.2 percent in May compared with a year ago. South Korea reduced its imports of oil from Iran by 8.3 percent from the month compared to May 2012.
China has repeatedly voiced its opposition to unilateral sanctions outside those by the United Nations, such as those imposed by the United States.
China’s total crude imports in May inched up 0.4 percent from a year earlier to 5.64 million bpd, customs data showed earlier in the month.
4 Comments on "China’s Iran crude imports jump ahead of US sanctions waiver"
Plantagenet on Sun, 23rd Jun 2013 12:22 am
Obama granted China a waiver from the sanctions against importing Iranian oil. It was incredibly stupid to grant Iran’s largest oil buyer a waiver from sanctions if Obama actually was trying to impose sanctions on Iran’s oil exports. It makes it appear as though the sanctions are actually meant to be just for show.
In any case, China is importing a great deal of Iranian oil (and legally bypassing Obama’s phony sanctions).
BillT on Sun, 23rd Jun 2013 3:33 am
China is giving ‘O’ the finger … and about time! China sees the coming war and is preparing. Are you?
“o” cannot do anything to China. He knows that China still holds four aces and he has a pair of deuces. If China pulls the dollar plug, ‘O’ will not even have gas for his military as the US will be bankrupt and imports will stop.
Will it hurt China? Maybe not as much as you would like to think. China will trade in gold if necessary. Why do you think they are stockpiling it by the thousands of tons?
DC on Sun, 23rd Jun 2013 8:01 am
The US has no mandate to sanction Iran, or anyone else. US sanctions have zero validity, in international law, or any law, period. Thus, the peoples of the world can ignore them as they see fit.
I have often wondered how the leaders of the civilized world feel when amerikan slime show up on their doorstep telling them they cant buy oil from Iran, or whoever. Do they waive their fraudulent sanction documents in their faces and say, this is what you will do? I would think the urge to send the heads(and nothing else) of anyone making such a demand to the steps of the white house would be difficult to resist.
The world could impose the ultimate ‘sanction’ on the US at any time, by simply refusing to trade in US dollars. The terrorist US military would immediately implode. Let us hope the next financial crise percolating in the US of Terror is 10x worse than the 2008 one.
BillT on Sun, 23rd Jun 2013 2:54 pm
Although the repercussions would affect my life somewhat, I agree with you, DC. I have family there that I would be concerned about, but if this police state America keeps on, their lives will be destroyed anyway. And, there will not be a world left for them to live in. When they go, they will take Europe and Japan with them and cripple those who are tied too close by the dollar.
The day is coming and probably not too many years away.