Washington is flexing again—this time hitting China in a fresh sanctions blitz aimed at choking off Iran’s oil cash flow and tightening the screws on Moscow’s influence in the Balkans.
The U.S. Treasury on Thursday blacklisted around 100 individuals, vessels, and companies—including China’s Shandong Jincheng Petrochemical Group, a Shandong teapot refinery accused of buying millions of barrels of Iranian crude since 2023. Also sanctioned: the Rizhao Shihua Crude Oil Terminal at Lanshan Port, accused of handling Iran’s “shadow fleet” tankers—like the Kongm, Big Mag, and Voy—that quietly move sanctioned barrels across Asia. It’s the fourth U.S. round this year targeting China-based buyers of Iranian oil, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent vowing to “degrade Iran’s cash flow by dismantling key elements of its export machine.”
The move lands just as Washington allowed a sanctions waiver to expire for Serbia’s Gazprom Neft-linked NIS refinery, which supplies roughly 80% of Serbia’s fuels. That decision forced crude flows via Croatia’s JANAF pipeline onto a short OFAC license that expires October 15. The cutoff immediately hit regional logistics, with JANAF warning it could lose about €18 million in revenue and Serbia’s president cautioning that stocks may only last into November.
Together, the two actions mark Washington’s most aggressive sanctions volley since midsummer, when it blacklisted over 115 people, companies, and ships tied to Iran’s sprawling Shamkhani-controlled oil network—the largest Iran-related crackdown since 2018.
The timing isn’t accidental. With a Gaza ceasefire still fragile and Iran’s regional proxies on alert, Washington’s latest round appears designed to signal that sanctions enforcement will not ease—even as crude markets balance on geopolitics. China’s teapots may shrug for now, but a growing list of blacklisted intermediaries could make insuring, financing, and disguising Iranian barrels far riskier than it was even a week ago.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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