US sanctions China-based refinery to pressure Iran

The US on Wednesday sanctioned a China-based independent "teapot" refinery to pressure Iran to stop selling "explicit oil exports," according to the Treasury Department.

The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Shandong Shengxing Chemical Co., Ltd. "for its role in purchasing more than a billion dollars' worth of Iranian crude oil, including from a front company for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF)," it said in a statement.

It also imposed additional sanctions on several companies and vessels responsible for facilitating Iranian oil shipments to China as part of Iran's "shadow fleet."

"Any refinery, company, or broker that chooses to purchase Iranian oil or facilitate Iran's oil trade places itself at serious risk," said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent.

Bessent added that the US is committed to "disrupting" all actors providing support to Iran's oil supply chain, "which the regime uses to support its terrorist proxies and partners."