29 Mar 2024
Wednesday 30 October 2019 - 16:14
Story Code : 362468

US keeps eye on Iran oil buyers as sanctions squeeze flows

Bloomberg | Sharon Cho and Saket Sundria: The U.S. has a message for buyers of sanctioned Iranian crude: were watching you.






The Trump administration routinely examines the effectiveness of its sanctions and is monitoring nations buying oil from Iran, saidKurt Donnelly, deputy assistant secretary for energy diplomacy from the Bureau of Energy Resources at the U.S. Department of State, without elaborating. While South Korea and India have halted purchases, customs data show that China is still regularly taking crude from the Persian Gulf nation, albeit at much smaller quantities.

Maximum pressure is our policy and our policy is to bring Iranian oil exports to zero, Donnelly said in an interview in Singapore. Sanctions are biting.



China's still buying Iranian oil even as volumes slip to a 14-year low

Iran has continued to transport oil to customers despite U.S. sanctions, utilizing a fleet of tankers consisting of ships owned by the Persian Gulf nation and other entities. The U.S. recently slapped penalties on companies that continue to facilitate this flow, imposing trade restrictions on Chinese oil-importers and shippers such asZhuhai Zhenrong Co.and a unit ofCOSCO Shipping Corp.

Our policy is right, we need to be firm and we need to continue to press it, Donnelly said.

Vessels canavoid detectionby employing tactics that include vanishing from tracking screens and clandestine transfers on the high seas in order to hide their activities. Chinese imports fromship-to-shiptransfers surged last month to about 910,000 tons of crude, three times as much as in August, although its unclear where the oil originated.
Ample Supplies


Global markets remain well supplied, despite sanctions on Iran,restrictionson U.S. trades with Venezuelas state-owned oil company Petrleos de Venezuela SA, and a recent attack on Saudi oil facilities, Donnelly said.

Looking at the global oil market, there hasnt been shortages even when we had the attack on Saudi facilities, said Donnelly. While sanctions on Iran and Venezuela have taken some supplies off the market, the U.S. has so much capacity that it can fill some of those supply gaps. The reduction of supplies hasnt disrupted oil markets, oil prices arent skyrocketing, he added.




Last month, about half of Saudi Arabias output washitby one of the worst disruptions in history, although production wasfully restoredwithin two weeks of the incident. In the weeks following the attack, exports of U.S. crude expanded to just shy of the nations highest-ever record outflows of oil set in June this year.

With assistance by Lucia Kassai






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