China officially imported Iranian crude oil for the first time in a year despite ongoing sanctions by the United States government, according to the data released by the General Administration of Chinese Customs on Thursday.
China brought in 260,312 tons of Iranian crude oil in December, according to data from the customs, which last recorded Iranian oil inflows in December 2020 at 520,000 tons.
It was not immediately clear which company brought in the latest cargo, which is equal to the amount of oil that would fit onto one very large crude carrier (VLCC) tanker and which terminal it was discharged into.
Unofficially, China's imports of Iranian oil had held above 500,000 barrels per day on average between August and October, as buyers judged that getting crude at cheap prices outweighed the risks of busting U.S. sanctions, Reuters reported in November.
To evade the sanctions, traders said that Iranian crude has been exported to China marked as oil from Oman, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Malaysia, squeezing out supplies from Brazil and West Africa, traders have said.
Imports from Iran have accounted for about 6% of China's crude oil imports, according to shipping data and trader estimates.
China had announced on Jan. 15 that Beijing and Tehran would begin a 25-year strategic cooperation agreement that would bring Iran into China's Belt and Road Initiative, a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure scheme intended to stretch from East Asia to Europe. The move was aimed at strengthening economic and political ties between the two countries as China blasted Washington's unilateral sanctions on Iran.
The U.S. reimposed sanctions that badly damaged Iran's economy after withdrawing from the nuclear pact in 2018, saying the terms did not do enough to curb Iran's nuclear activities, ballistic missile program and regional influence.
A year later, Iran began to gradually breach the accord, rebuilding stockpiles of enriched uranium, refining it to higher fissile purity and installing advanced centrifuges to speed up output.
The project aims to significantly expand China's economic and political influence and has raised concerns in the U.S. and elsewhere.
