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• 3 min de lectura
China's state refiners are considering resuming purchases of Iranian oil. However, competition from alternative supplies and a drop in domestic fuel demand will moderate their interest, several industry sources said.
Any acquisitions made would be the first since 2019, the year Sinopec and PetroChina bought Iranian crude shortly after US President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions on Tehran's oil exports during his first term.
PetroChina and Sinopec are analyzing the banking, insurance, and shipping factors necessary to resume their operations with Iran, said three of the sources, who are officials from Chinese state oil companies who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.
The decision comes after the exemption granted by the United States on Monday, June 22, which allows global customers to buy Iranian oil and petrochemical products, as well as settle transactions in US dollars, following the memorandum of understanding signed last week that ended the US and Israel war against Iran.
"Let's see who dares to be the first to try the crab," commented one of the three sources, referring to a Chinese idiom that alludes to the first person to take a risk with something new.
The source also highlighted that there is no shortage of crude, given that exports from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq are increasing.
It is also unclear which banks could provide financing and clearing for the operations, or whether Iran has the shipping capacity to deliver the cargoes, the source added.
Asian refiners, including Chinese ones, are well supplied despite supply disruptions in the Middle East caused by the war, thanks to securing cargoes from West Africa, Brazil, and Russia.
Shipments from Gulf suppliers in the Middle East are expected to rebound with the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz under the provisional peace agreement.
Iranian oil loadings accelerated to about 1.6 million barrels per day between June 19 and 24, up from 340,000 barrels per day during the first 18 days of June and 370,000 barrels per day in May, according to tanker tracking firm Vortexa.
State-owned companies are also unlikely to resume buying Iranian crude due to lukewarm domestic demand, a second state oil official said, as declines in Chinese fuel and petrochemical consumption have outpaced recent cuts in crude imports and refinery processing in the country.
For now, independent Chinese refiners, known as 'teapots', remain the main buyers of Iranian crude, operating through a group of little-known intermediaries and settling most of their purchases in Chinese yuan.
Among the major state oil companies, Sinopec could emerge as the most willing buyer, as this refiner - once Tehran's largest individual customer - has faced deeper cuts in its crude supply and needs to replenish inventories after having to draw on its commercial reserves since May, two of the three Chinese sources said.
Sinopec made inquiries to the National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) about potential purchases under the previous 30-day waiver in March, before deciding to discard them because the timeframe was too tight to finalize a transaction, an industry official close to the Iranian company said.
NIOC, which has marketing teams in both Beijing and Shanghai, anticipates renewed interest from state refiners in the coming days, the official added.
NIOC will be the sole contractual party for oil under the exemption, and ESPO blend, Russia's main export crude type, will be used as a pricing reference for discussions of potential new deals, the official added.
