Singapore — China’s crude imports from Iran are likely to have peaked in August at 874,000 b/d ahead of the looming re-imposition of US sanctions in November, according to S&P Global Platts’ trade tracker cFlow.
The imports in August included barrels directly shipped to China and a VLCC cargo that offloaded in Myanmar and was reportedly sent via the China-Myanmar pipeline to a refinery in southwest China.
The arrivals last month took inflows from Iran over January-August to 165.57 million barrels, 72% of total Iranian crude imports of 229.99 million barrels over full year 2017, cFlow data showed.
“It is unlikely the inflows will rise further in the rest of the year and the record [volume imported] in August was probably because of Chinese buyers’ intention to take as many Iranian barrels as possible ahead of the re-imposition of US sanctions in November,” a Hong Kong-based analyst said.
Chinese buyers have likely loaded 17.42 million barrels or 581,000 b/d of crude from Iran in August for September delivery, including one VLCC cargo to Myanmar, cFlow showed. The volume was 14.1% lower than the average 676,000 b/d recorded over the first eight months of the year.
Most Iranian crude imported to China is consumed by Chinese refineries, with the balance saved in bonded storage rented by the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company.