US Firm Withdraws Safety Cover Of 2 Tankers For Shipping Iran’s Oil

The move revealed by a trade source and ship tracking specialist Vortexa Analytics to Reuters on Thursday comes as the Biden Administration is locked in tough negotiations with Iran to revive a 2015 nuclear deal that will include the lifting of US sanctions on Iranian oil. The former Trump administration pulled out of the deal and re-imposed sanctions.

Iran, which sits on the world's fourth-largest oil reserves, relies heavily on oil revenue, but sanctions have prevented it from exporting at anywhere near capacity since 2018. Before US reimposed sanctions. Iran was selling more than 2 million barrels of crude per day.

The refilling of China's strategic petroleum reserves in the past few weeks also comes ahead of a plan to release oil from its emergency stockpile in a rare coordination with the United States to help cool global oil prices which hit a seven-year high this week. The high price of oil is helping fuel inflation around the world.

China has been importing Iranian oil under the radar which is not reflected in official customs data as buyers are fearful of invoking US sanctions. On Thursday, China's customs reported the first import of Iranian crude in a year despite ongoing sanctions.

China brought in 260,312 tons (1.9 million barrels) of Iranian crude oil in December, according to data from the General Administration of Chinese Customs, which last recorded Iranian oil inflows in December 2020 at double the volume.

A senior trade source with knowledge of the shipment told Reuters this particular cargo was offloaded into a state reserve site in Zhanjiang in late December.

This was followed by another similar-sized shipment that was discharged into the same port for the emergency stockpile, according to ship tracking specialist Vortexa Analytics.

"There were reports of importing Iranian crude earlier - but hush hush somewhat. Now I think the Chinese are testing openly to see US response," Tilak Doshi, managing director of Doshi Consulting in Singapore.

There have been no comments about the Reuters report by China or the US State Department.

"This is (China's) attempt to cool oil prices. It's basically to show the world that there's more supply even though it's only available to them," said a senior oil trader who declined to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Unofficially, China's imports of Iranian oil picked up at the end of 2020 and have continued despite the sanctions that, if enforced, would allow Washington to cut off those who violate them from the U.S. economy.

Shipments 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 avoid the sanctions, Iranian crude has been exported to China marked as oil from Oman, the United Arab Emirates 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 traders' estimates.

China was expected to release some stocks from its strategic stockpile around the Lunar New Year, Reuters reported last week.

According to South Korean government sources on Thursday, Tehran and Seoul seek to capitalize on the assets to handle the issue of the UN dues, which have deprived Iran of its voting rights.

"Our government is in consultations with the Iranian government in that regard and is in related consultations with the US and the UN as well," sources told Yonhap News Agency on condition of anonymity.

After the Islamic Republic lost the right to vote at the UN, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said Tehran is trying to find a secure channelto pay its membership fee and end its suspension.

According to the UN charter, a member loses the right to vote when its debts equal or exceed the amount of dues it should have paid over the previous two years.

Last year, Iran managed to pay $16 million of its $65 million arrears to recover its vote after Tehran was granted an exemption from the sanctions and was allowed to access money blocked by the US Treasury. This time the minimum amount Iran must pay is over $18 million.

Two South Korea banks hold $7-9 billion of Iranian money, owed for oil imports.

In a press conference, Biden spoke two sentences about the Iran negotiations, but what he said was that it is not time to stop the nuclear talks, which are making “some progress.”

US officials have been saying for weeks that the multilateral negotiations in Vienna to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement, JCPOA, cannot go on forever and should reach a resolution in a matter of “weeks, not months.” But the Biden Administration has not put a clear deadline on when it would decide if the talks were productive.

Iran continues to enrich uranium at 60-percent purity and most analysts agree that it is shortening the time to having enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb. The US and its European allies have warned that with the kind of progress Iran is making the Vienna talks can become meaningless if they drag on.

“It’s not time to give up. There is some progress being made. The P5+1 is on the same page. But it remains to be seen,” was all Biden said during the press conference.

While the US President was saying that the P5, meaning permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, “is on the same page”, data released by China showed for the first time in a year that Beijing is officially importing Iranian oil in violation of US sanctions.

Reuters reported that China imported 260,312 tons of Iranian crude oil in December, according to data from the General Administration of Chinese Customs, which last recorded Iranian oil inflows in December 2020 at 520,000 tons.

Energy monitoring firms were reporting throughout 2021 that China was importing large quantities of Iranian oil indirectly, through third countries without registering the cargos as having originated in Iran. But now Beijing is officially disclosing its imports. The question is if the Biden Administration will respond in some way or prefer to have China’s support in the nuclear talks.

On the other hand, Iran has been boasting lately that it is defeating the sanctions, selling much more oil than in 2019-2020, implying that it does need to make concession at the Vienna talks. So China’s increased volume imports of Iranian oil and its official admission in customs data provides diplomatic leverage to Tehran.

Estimates are that oil exports have topped 600,000 barrels per day in 2021 compared with around 200,000 in 2019 and the first nine months of 2020. Imports from Iran have accounted for about 6% of China's crude oil imports, according to shipping data and trader estimates.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday argued that the Administration cannot provide guarantees to Tehran that the United States will never pull out of the nuclear deal, like former president Donald trump did in 2018.

“In our system you can’t give that kind of quick and serious guarantee. President Biden can certainly say what he will or won’t do as president as long as Iran remains committed to the deal, but we can’t bind future presidents. And that’s one of the things we’re talking about,” he said referring to the Vienna negotiations.

In a tweet Owji said on Saturday, “The honorable President of the Republic correctly pointed out” that oil exports have increased by 40 percent during his term. He added that in addition to selling more oil at higher prices, Iran is now able to recoup the money. Owji and other officials refrain from saying how much oil is exported and how much foreign currency the government receives. The information is considered state secret amid US sanctions.

Iran’s oil exports dropped to around 200,000 barrels per day in 2019 when the United States imposed full sanctions, revoking limited import waivers it had offered to some countries. But in late 2020, as former US President Donald Trump lost the election Tehran increased its sales through illicit channels. China is the biggest buyer, with shipments disguised as exports from other countries.

Independent industry sources have confirmed that Iran was exporting around 600,000 bpd in 2021, but whether the Raisi government has increased exports on top of that quantity is not clear. Apparently, he is trying to take credit for something that was already taking place before he assumed office.

But if there is a grain of truth in his claim, the question arises as to why China decided to increase its purchases from Iran when the hardliner president assumed office last August, and not earlier.

A similar development took place with Covid-19 vaccines last year, when former President Hassan Rouhani’s government was complaining that China was not delivering sufficient doses and Iran was seriously lagging in nationwide vaccinations.

The vaccine flow suddenly increased in August as Raisi assumed office and with tens of millions of doses supplied by China “the revolutionary government” was able to inoculate the majority of the population.

If Raisi’s claim that his government has increased oil exports by 40 percent is true, it would mean only one thing – Beijing has allowed more illicit imports of Iranian oil. The question then becomes if China is indirectly influencing Iran’s internal politics.

Another factor in China buying more Iranian oil since late 2020 is President Joe Biden’s decision to negotiate with Iran and revive the 2015 nuclear agreement that Trump abandoned in 2018. The US administration has not taken any visible action to clamp down on Iran’s additional oil exports to China amid negotiations in Vienna. This might have given Beijing the opening it needed to buy Iranian oil at a discount.

In December, the official government newspaper Iran Daily wrote that Tehran is offering such large discountsthat buyers are tempted to take the risk and circumvent US sanctions.

Another interesting point highlighted by both Raisi and Owji is that Tehran is able to receive the cash for its oil exports. Again, this can be just a claim to take credit and instill optimism in the beleaguered local market, or to show the Biden Administration that it is not in a dire economic situation.

Given US banking sanctions on Iran, receiving billions of dollars in foreign currency is highly unlikely, unless the US is looking the other way and money reaches Iranian bank accounts through intermediaries.

Companies and banks in the United Arab Emirates could be involved both in disguising illicit Iranian oil shipments and repatriating the money, possibly with substantial profits. In December US sent a delegation to the UAE to discuss tightening sanctions enforcementbut little information has emerged since then.

The eastern district of New York said in a statement on Friday that a criminal complaint has been unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn charging Kambiz Attar Kashani with conspiring to provide products such as subscriptions to proprietary software, fixed attenuators, power supplies and storage systems to the government of Iran.

Kashani was arrested on Thursday in Chicago, Illinois, and will remain in custody pending a detention hearing.

From around February 2019 through June 2021, Kashani orchestrated an elaborate scheme to evade US export laws to send US tech to “the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), which has been designated by the United States government as acting for or on behalf of terrorist organizations”, said Breon Peace, the attorney for the eastern district of NY.

The statement noted that “the CBI has materially assisted, sponsored and provided financial, material or technological support, goods or services to Lebanese Hezbollah, a terrorist organization, and to the Qods Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)”.

To procure the items, he allegedly used two United Arab Emirates companies as fronts to deceive multiple US technology companies, Peace added.

FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Joseph R. Bonavolanta said that “Kashani profited financially by strengthening the economy of one of the world’s most infamous state sponsors of terrorism, while circumventing critical US laws”.