CHINA BUYS MOST SHIPPED IRANIAN OIL

The US sanctions, which block US assets of those designated and prevent Americans from doing business with them, have deterred some larger independent refiners from buying Iranian oil. China buys more than 80 per cent of Iran's shipped oil, 2025 data from analytics firm Kpler showed.

Sanctions experts have long said, however, that the independent refineries are somewhat immune to the full effect of US sanctions as they have little exposure to the US financial system. Imposing sanctions on Chinese banks that help facilitate the purchases would have a larger effect on purchases of Iranian oil, they say.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US is imposing a "financial stranglehold" on the Iranian government. "Treasury will continue to constrict the network of vessels, intermediaries, and buyers Iran relies on to move its oil to global markets," Bessent said.

Bessent told reporters at the White House on Apr 15 that Treasury has written to two Chinese banks and "told them that if we can prove that there is Iranian money flowing through your accounts, then we are willing to put on secondary ​sanctions."

The teapot refiners recently have had to buy Iranian oil at premiums to international Brent oil prices after Washington's temporary waiver of sanctions on Iranian oil at sea raised expectations that India might buy more of the oil. The US last week allowed the waiver to expire.