Sanctioning Entities Purchasing and Transporting Iranian Oil to Further Impose Maximum Pressure on Iran

The U.S. Department of State is today sanctioning Huaying Huizhou Daya Bay Petrochemical Terminal Storage, an oil terminal in China, for buying and storing Iranian crude oil from a sanctioned vessel.

The Department of the Treasury is concurrently sanctioning China-based Shandong Shouguang Luqing Petrochemical Co., Ltd., a “teapot” oil refinery, for purchasing and refining hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian crude oil.  This includes oil from vessels linked to Ansarallah (Houthis), a Foreign Terrorist Organization, and the U.S.-designated Iranian Ministry of Defense of Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL).  “Teapot” refiners are private Chinese refineries that are the primary purchasers of Iranian oil.  This will be the United States’ first designation of a teapot refinery.

In addition, the Department of the Treasury is sanctioning 12 entities and one individual, and identifying eight vessels as blocked property for being responsible for shipping millions of barrels of Iranian oil to China.  These vessels—are part of Iran’s “shadow fleet” of tankers that supply teapot refineries, including Luqing Petrochemical.

These sanctions are being imposed pursuant to President Trump’s maximum pressure campaign to drive Iran’s oil exports, including to China, to zero.  China is by far the largest importer of Iranian oil. The Iranian regime uses the revenue it generates from these sales to finance attacks on U.S. allies, support terrorism around the world, and pursue other destabilizing actions.

All these new sanctions will be fully enforced under the Trump Administration’s maximum pressure campaign.  So long as Iran attempts to generate oil revenues to fund its destabilizing activities, the United States will hold both Iran and all its sanctions-evading partners accountable.

Today’s action by the Department of State is being taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13846, which authorizes and reimposes certain sanctions with respect to Iran.  Today’s action by the Department of the Treasury is being taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13902, which target Iran’s petroleum and petrochemical sectors.  This action marks the fourth round of sanctions targeting Iranian oil sales since the President issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 2 on February 4, 2025 For more information on today’s actions, please see the Department of State’s fact sheet and the Department of the Treasury’s press release.