Iran races to sell oil stored in China
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Iran has shipped nearly 3 million barrels of oil from a storage site in China, people familiar with the matter said, in a bid to raise funds that could be used to shore up Iran’s allied militia groups in the Middle East. The oil is from a stockpile of at least 25 million barrels that Iran sent to China in late 2018, when it feared the imposition of new sanctions by the first Trump administration would prevent the country from exporting oil, those people said.
China gave its approval for the drawdown and shipments last month following talks in late November and December with Iranian officials, the people said. It isn’t the first time Iran has sought to draw down and sell the oil, the people said, but Beijing hadn’t previously given the greenlight. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said they weren’t aware of the situation but said that Beijing cooperates with all countries, including Iran, within the bounds of international law.
China has opposed the U.S. “abuse of illegal and unreasonable unilateral sanctions," the spokesperson said. Iran’s U.N.
mission in New York declined to comment. The U.S. State Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The additional oil revenue comes at a crucial time for Iran, as it tries to support its allied militias in the region, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, which have been battered in conflicts with Israel. The fall of the Assad regime came as another blow, choking off the land route that Iran used to supply Hezbollah with cash and weapons. Iran, meanwhile, is facing high inflation and sluggish growth.
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