SINGAPORE/BEIJING: China’s state-run Zhuhai Zhenrong Corp, has sold its first fuel cargo to Iran in at least two years, industry sources said yesterday. Zhenrong, the world’s single-largest lifter of Iranian crude, is shipping a 250,000-barrel cargo of gasoline, the sources said. A vessel, which loaded the cargo from the United Arab Emirates port of Jebel Ali, is expected to discharge the motor fuel at Iran’s Bandar Abbas port over the next few days, a source added.

“The tanker will offload the next few days, it didn’t come direct from China or Singapore... the cargo was loaded in Jebel Ali,” a source familiar with the tanker’s operations said. Iran, Opec’s second-largest oil producer, is now purchasing about half its monthly imports from Chinese companies. The Islamic Republic imported about 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) of petroleum in July. Tehran which lacks the refining capacity to to meet domestic fuel consumption has to import nearly 40 percent of its supply from the international market.

China’s Unipec and state-run Chinaoil restarted direct sales of petroleum products to Iran earlier this year, stepping into a void left by fuel suppliers who halted trade under threat of US sanctions. “The Chinese companies are taking advantage of the current situation, they don’t really have anyone to answer to, and they will do this business as long as there is money to be made,” an Asia-based trader said.

“The Chinese companies are also a lifeline for the companies that have had to pull out of business with Iran, so in a way everyone still wins.” Last month, French major Total joined a growing list of firms which had fuel sales into Iran. Total had supplied about half of Iran’s gasoline imports in May. Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Reliance Industries and independent European traders Glencore and Vitol were among suppliers that have stopped fuel sales to Iran, or have made a decision not to enter into new trading agreements with the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter. Courtesy:PENINSULA