ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iran is optimistic it can increase trade with China as it struggles to lessen the economic damage from crippling United States sanctions on its oil sector. The Chinese government opposes the sanctions on Iran, expressing concern about the stability of global energy markets, but Chinese companies don’t want to take any steps without firm backing from Beijing.
“I am optimistic about the future of trade ties between Iran and China,” Masoud Karbasian, CEO of the government-owned National Iranian Oil Company, said on Wednesday. He was speaking on Chinese TV during the 24th International Oil, Gas, Refining, and Petrochemical Exhibition in Tehran.
According to a Reuters report on Tuesday, however, an estimated 20 million barrels of Iranian crude have been sitting in limbo in a Chinese port for six months. The oil is yet to clear customs amid uncertainty over waivers from US sanctions on Iranian oil.
“No responsible Chinese company with any international exposure will have anything to do with Iran oil unless they are specifically told by the Chinese government to do so,” Tilak Doshi of oil and gas consultancy Muse, Stancil & Co in Singapore told Reuters.
Another two tankers full of Iranian oil are scheduled to arrive in eastern China on May 5 and 7, according to the report.
China is expanding its presence in the Middle East, making investments through its Belt and Road Initiative and building ties with countries across the region, including Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Israel.
Tehran is lobbying for a greater role in the Belt and Road project. “We welcome Chinese investors to attend Iran,” Iran’s Economy Minister Farhad Dejpasand told IRNA in Beijing on April 24.
While Beijing focuses on economic development and does not interfere in internal affairs, it could play a role in reining in Iran’s regional activities, Brett McGurk, former US special envoy to the global coalition against ISIS, argued in The Atlantic recently. China could convince Tehran to “pull back its proxies and formations from Syria that threaten Israel,” preventing an Iran-Israel conflict that “would jeopardize China’s own position in the region,” he stated.
Washington re-imposed sanctions on Iran’s oil sector last November after US President Donald Trump withdrew from the landmark nuclear deal and his administration began a campaign to isolate Iran, labeling the Islamic Republic a “state sponsor of terror.”
The US issued six-month long waivers on imports of Iranian oil to a handful of countries, including China, giving them time to find alternative crude sources. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on April 22 they would not be renewing those waivers that will expire on May 2.
"China firmly opposes the US implementation of unilateral sanctions and its so-called long-armed jurisdiction," China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said after the announcement. "The relevant move by the United States will intensify the turmoil in the Middle East and the turmoil in the international energy market."
Speaking on C-SPAN’s The Hill programme on April 29, Pompeo said they have worked with alternative suppliers to ensure a steady global supply of oil.
“We’re convinced we can make sure that the markets are adequately supplied,” he said. “But with respect to the absence of the granting of waivers and what others may do, sovereign nations make their own choices, individual businesses inside of that will make their own choices. What we can do is prepare a sanctions regime that makes it incredibly costly.”
Iran’s oil minister accused the US and its OPEC allies of “overstating their spare capacity.”
Speaking at the oil exhibition in Tehran, Minister Bijan Zangeneh said Washington cannot control the oil market “by mere statements.”
“The market conditions remain fragile” right now, he said, pointing to Libya, where the Libyan National Army of Khalifa Haftar has led a month-long assault to take the capital Tripoli from the UN-backed government, and Venezuela, where violent clashes erupted after opposition leader Juan Guaido called on the armed forces to rise up against President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday.
The US using “oil as a weapon” against OPEC members Iran and Venezuela could “spell the demise and collapse of OPEC,” he warned.
Iran’s oil exports have been cut by 1.7 million barrels per day since the US withdrew from the nuclear deal in May 2018, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported last week.
But the global oil markets are healthy, IEA stated on April 23. Markets are “now adequately supplied, and… global spare production capacity remains at comfortable levels.”
“I am optimistic about the future of trade ties between Iran and China,” Masoud Karbasian, CEO of the government-owned National Iranian Oil Company, said on Wednesday. He was speaking on Chinese TV during the 24th International Oil, Gas, Refining, and Petrochemical Exhibition in Tehran.
According to a Reuters report on Tuesday, however, an estimated 20 million barrels of Iranian crude have been sitting in limbo in a Chinese port for six months. The oil is yet to clear customs amid uncertainty over waivers from US sanctions on Iranian oil.
“No responsible Chinese company with any international exposure will have anything to do with Iran oil unless they are specifically told by the Chinese government to do so,” Tilak Doshi of oil and gas consultancy Muse, Stancil & Co in Singapore told Reuters.
Another two tankers full of Iranian oil are scheduled to arrive in eastern China on May 5 and 7, according to the report.
China is expanding its presence in the Middle East, making investments through its Belt and Road Initiative and building ties with countries across the region, including Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Israel.
Tehran is lobbying for a greater role in the Belt and Road project. “We welcome Chinese investors to attend Iran,” Iran’s Economy Minister Farhad Dejpasand told IRNA in Beijing on April 24.
While Beijing focuses on economic development and does not interfere in internal affairs, it could play a role in reining in Iran’s regional activities, Brett McGurk, former US special envoy to the global coalition against ISIS, argued in The Atlantic recently. China could convince Tehran to “pull back its proxies and formations from Syria that threaten Israel,” preventing an Iran-Israel conflict that “would jeopardize China’s own position in the region,” he stated.
Washington re-imposed sanctions on Iran’s oil sector last November after US President Donald Trump withdrew from the landmark nuclear deal and his administration began a campaign to isolate Iran, labeling the Islamic Republic a “state sponsor of terror.”
The US issued six-month long waivers on imports of Iranian oil to a handful of countries, including China, giving them time to find alternative crude sources. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on April 22 they would not be renewing those waivers that will expire on May 2.
"China firmly opposes the US implementation of unilateral sanctions and its so-called long-armed jurisdiction," China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said after the announcement. "The relevant move by the United States will intensify the turmoil in the Middle East and the turmoil in the international energy market."
Speaking on C-SPAN’s The Hill programme on April 29, Pompeo said they have worked with alternative suppliers to ensure a steady global supply of oil.
“We’re convinced we can make sure that the markets are adequately supplied,” he said. “But with respect to the absence of the granting of waivers and what others may do, sovereign nations make their own choices, individual businesses inside of that will make their own choices. What we can do is prepare a sanctions regime that makes it incredibly costly.”
Iran’s oil minister accused the US and its OPEC allies of “overstating their spare capacity.”
Speaking at the oil exhibition in Tehran, Minister Bijan Zangeneh said Washington cannot control the oil market “by mere statements.”
“The market conditions remain fragile” right now, he said, pointing to Libya, where the Libyan National Army of Khalifa Haftar has led a month-long assault to take the capital Tripoli from the UN-backed government, and Venezuela, where violent clashes erupted after opposition leader Juan Guaido called on the armed forces to rise up against President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday.
The US using “oil as a weapon” against OPEC members Iran and Venezuela could “spell the demise and collapse of OPEC,” he warned.
Iran’s oil exports have been cut by 1.7 million barrels per day since the US withdrew from the nuclear deal in May 2018, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported last week.
But the global oil markets are healthy, IEA stated on April 23. Markets are “now adequately supplied, and… global spare production capacity remains at comfortable levels.”
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