An oil tanker owned by the National Iranian Tanker Company docked in China’s Jinxi Refining and Chemical Complex near Beijing this week, apparently defying U.S. sanctions on Tehran even as President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet at the Group of 20 summit in Japan.
The website Bourse & Bazaar, which tracks economic developments in Iran, first reported the shipment, citing what it said was data from TankersTrackers.com.
The logs showed a medium-sized Suezmax vessel left an Iranian terminal on May 2, just after the U.S. said it would no longer waive secondary sanctions on China, India and other major buyers of Iranian oil. The sanctions are a critical part of the Trump administration’s campaign to rein in Iran’s nuclear and military programs and change its hostile behavior in the Middle East.
The Salina reportedly arrived near the port of Jinzhou near Beijing on June 20, according to Bourse & Bazaar. Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi are scheduled to meet Saturday in Osaka, Japan, with Iran and the ongoing trade war between the two countries likely to figure heavily in the talks.
China has long been one of Iran’s biggest oil customers, and Beijing has continued to support the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that President Trump repudiated last year.
Several more tankers are expected to arrive in China in the next few weeks, reported Bourse & Bazaar.
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