'Teapot' refineries & ghost tankers: China's playbook for dodging U.S. sanctions on Iran oil
The post 'Teapot' refineries & ghost tankers: China's playbook for dodging U.S. sanctions on Iran oil appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
China has quietly ramped up its imports of Iranian oil, using shadowy shipping tactics and independent “teapot” refineries to work around aggressive U.S. sanctions, according to data provided by CNBC. Despite the sanctions aimed at cutting off Tehran’s cash pipeline, oil has kept flowing. China nearly doubled its Iranian crude intake to 17.8 million barrels per day in 2024 compared to 2022, based on figures from ship-tracking firm Kpler. The first five months of this year alone saw consistent inflows of 6.8 million barrels per day, unchanged from the same stretch in 2024. Since July 2022, China’s customs data has shown zero crude arriving from Iran. That’s fake. The oil’s still coming, just under the radar. Most of it doesn’t even look like it came from Iran anymore by the time it reaches shore. Instead, tankers shuffle it across oceans, switch vessels mid-route, hide their location signals, and wipe the paper trail clean. Teapots handle crude, state firms stay out The buyers? Not the big boys. China’s small independent refiners—nicknamed teapots—are leading this game. State-owned and large private refiners still avoid sanctioned Iranian crude, but teapots are scooping it up. They buy it “delivered,” meaning the Iranian sellers handle all transport. That way, the Chinese refiners don’t get tangled up in maritime sanctions. “The physical market has not seen any long-term impact to the flow of Iranian oil,” said Brian Leisen, global energy strategist at RBC Capital Markets. These teapots don’t even need to ask where the oil comes from. By the time it reaches China, the barrels have been passed from ship to ship—often near the Strait of Malacca or the Middle East Gulf—and the original documents are switched. “If the cargo gets transported from ship to ship, it is not easy to trace once documents are switched,” said…
