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China boosts gas sales to Iran, irks U.S.
The state-owned China National Petroleum Corp.s trading unit, ChinaOil, shipped two cargoes totaling 600,000 barrels of gasoline direct to Iran for $55 million, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, the trading unit of the China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec), Unipec, reportedly agreed to sell 250,000 barrels to Iran. The barrels reportedly would have been loaded for shipment April 15 through a third party in Singapore.
The exports would seem to thwart U.S. efforts to isolate Iran.
The reports come as Washington is accelerating both unilateral and multilateral efforts to impose sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. Multilateral sanctions proposals have been diluted and caught up at the United Nations.
But the United States has continued to proceed on the unilateral front. The U.S. Treasury Department has pressured firms to cut back on their trade with Iran, especially gasoline exports.
Now, China appears to be picking up this newly available market share, a mutually beneficial arrangement, as Iran needs the gasoline and China has surplus refining and shipping capacity.
China has resisted participating in sanctions so it can expand its gasoline exports and to keep oil supplies coming from Iran, which accounts for roughly 11 percent of Chinese oil imports. Moreover, Beijing does not wish to jeopardize its investments in the Iranian energy sector.
China understands the message this sends to Washington, however and this at a time when U.S.-Chinese relations are souring over a host of disagreements. The biggest source of these tensions is U.S. pressure on China to reform its fixed exchange-rate policy and allow the yuan to appreciate to help correct the U.S.-Chinese trade imbalance.
China is interested in reforming its currency policy for its own reasons but wants to do so slowly and incrementally, so it has resisted U.S. pressure. Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao held a bilateral meeting April 12 in Washington to discuss these and other matters of concern. But China has not announced a change in position on any of the main disputes.
Despite undermining the U.S. strategy of unilateral sanctions by increasing its gasoline exports, China has offered to participate in drafting a U.N. resolution on less-potent multilateral sanctions (that do not target Irans energy sector). This allows China to continue delaying tough action against Iran while still plausibly upholding its commitments to nuclear nonproliferation and cooperation with the United States.
tehran times : China boosts gas sales to Iran, irks U.S.
The state-owned China National Petroleum Corp.s trading unit, ChinaOil, shipped two cargoes totaling 600,000 barrels of gasoline direct to Iran for $55 million, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, the trading unit of the China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec), Unipec, reportedly agreed to sell 250,000 barrels to Iran. The barrels reportedly would have been loaded for shipment April 15 through a third party in Singapore.
The exports would seem to thwart U.S. efforts to isolate Iran.
The reports come as Washington is accelerating both unilateral and multilateral efforts to impose sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. Multilateral sanctions proposals have been diluted and caught up at the United Nations.
But the United States has continued to proceed on the unilateral front. The U.S. Treasury Department has pressured firms to cut back on their trade with Iran, especially gasoline exports.
Now, China appears to be picking up this newly available market share, a mutually beneficial arrangement, as Iran needs the gasoline and China has surplus refining and shipping capacity.
China has resisted participating in sanctions so it can expand its gasoline exports and to keep oil supplies coming from Iran, which accounts for roughly 11 percent of Chinese oil imports. Moreover, Beijing does not wish to jeopardize its investments in the Iranian energy sector.
China understands the message this sends to Washington, however and this at a time when U.S.-Chinese relations are souring over a host of disagreements. The biggest source of these tensions is U.S. pressure on China to reform its fixed exchange-rate policy and allow the yuan to appreciate to help correct the U.S.-Chinese trade imbalance.
China is interested in reforming its currency policy for its own reasons but wants to do so slowly and incrementally, so it has resisted U.S. pressure. Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao held a bilateral meeting April 12 in Washington to discuss these and other matters of concern. But China has not announced a change in position on any of the main disputes.
Despite undermining the U.S. strategy of unilateral sanctions by increasing its gasoline exports, China has offered to participate in drafting a U.N. resolution on less-potent multilateral sanctions (that do not target Irans energy sector). This allows China to continue delaying tough action against Iran while still plausibly upholding its commitments to nuclear nonproliferation and cooperation with the United States.
tehran times : China boosts gas sales to Iran, irks U.S.
