TEHRAN (Iran News) Data from the tanker-tracking firm Vortexa revealed that China’s crude imports from Iran surpassed a historic threshold of 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in March. At the same time, storage levels at independent refineries in Shandong province saw a sharp rise.

Analytics company Kpler reported that China’s Iranian crude imports climbed by 20% from February to reach 1.71 million bpd in March — the highest level in the past five months. In February, the figure stood at 1.43 million bpd.

Two oil traders monitoring the flow of Iranian shipments to China estimated March’s imports at between 1.67 million and 1.8 million bpd.

Despite global pressure, China — which opposes unilateral sanctions — now accounts for approximately 90% of Iran’s crude exports, analysts said.

According to Kpler’s data, Iranian oil made up 16% of China’s seaborne crude imports in March.

Emma Li, a senior analyst at Vortexa, and a refinery source based in China attributed the surge in Iranian purchases to growing fears of supply disruptions, prompting refiners and traders to stock up quickly.

Vortexa reported that Shandong’s onshore crude storage increased by 22 million barrels in March compared to February, aligning with the spike in Iranian imports.

Li noted that this marked a monthly record in storage growth, particularly concentrated in port facilities across Shandong.

A trader working for an independent Chinese refinery suggested that the influx of Iranian crude last month was so substantial that some shipments were handed over by middlemen to storage tanks while awaiting buyers.

Looking ahead, Li expects China’s imports from Iran to drop in April, citing stagnant demand. She predicts average annual imports to stabilize between 1.3 and 1.4 million bpd — consistent with last year’s figures.

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Owji said that Iranian oil exports had reached significant levels in February amid efforts by the country to get round the sanctions and pump more oil to markets in East Asia.

“Iran’s oil sales over the last month (February) was considerable despite the sanctions and they are expected to further increase in the coming months,” the minister was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

Figures by international tanker tracking services released in January showed that oil exports from Iran in late 2022 had reached records not seen since the country came under US sanctions nearly five years ago.

The figures suggested that Iran had pumped more than 1.2 million barrels per day of oil to export markets late last year and showed that Iranian crude shipments had continued to rise in early 2023 with higher exports to China and Venezuela.

In his remarks, Owji said revenues collected from Iranian oil exports had more than doubled in early 2023 compared to the same period last year.

He said revenues from sales of Iranian petrochemical shipments had reached nearly $14 billion in the 11 months to late January.

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Mehdi Safari, who serves as Iranian deputy foreign minister for economic diplomacy, said that Iran and Cuba have been pursuing swap agreements as a major part of their trade and economic discussions in recent weeks.

“Swap with Cuba is being seriously pursued and it has been agreed that we import the grains we need in return for exporting oil in a systematic manner,” Safari was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency.

Iran has reached similar swap deals with trade partners since the country came under American sanctions in 2018. The unilateral sanctions were meant to minimize Iran’s ability to freely sell its oil in the international markets.

Although oil sales have rebounded in recent months in defiance of US sanctions, Iranian government authorities still insist they will pursue barter deals with other countries to help boost trade with the rest of the world.

Safari said Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji raised the issue of barter trade with Cuba during a trip to the country last month.

He suggested a final agreement on the issue had been reached over the past two days during the 18th session of the Iran-Cuba Joint Economic Commission held in Tehran.

Safari said that Iran views Cuba as a main gateway for its exports to countries in the Central and Latin America region.

Meanwhile yesterday Iranian Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Ehsan Khandouzi Seyed Ehsan Khandouzi in meeting with Cuban Deputy Prime Minister and President’s Special Envoy Mr. Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz called for boosting cooperation between the two states.

Khandouzi said that the Islamic Republic of Iran has always been seeking long term and sustainable economic relations with the Latin American states and especially with Cuba.

He said that considering the background of excellent political cooperation between the two states, Cuba is very important for Iran. He then pointed to the history of cooperation between the two states in the fields of health and agriculture and emphasized necessity for improving economic relations and said that it is expected with implementation of agreements,  the cooperation between the two countries would broaden. He also called for finalizing the agreements for incentives and mutual support of investment and avoiding from getting double tax.

Then Cabrisas, for his part, highlighted his country’s plans for broadening economic development and priorities to reach economic development cooperation and enumerated negative factors effecting Cuban economy like economic sanctions or COVID pandemic and emphasized that climate and Ukraine war have overshadowed Cuba’s food security.

He then announced readiness of Cuba for using Iran’s experience and technology in implementing important economic projects.

Cabrisas also pointed to the high capacities of agro, health, energy and medical sectors as well as the capability of the Iranian companies and called for increasing the long term economic cooperation between the two countries.

Cabrisas arrived on Friday in this capital on an official visit heading the Caribbean island’s delegation to the 18th Session of the Iran-Cuba Intergovernmental Commission.

The Cuban delegation included the Minister of Energy and Mines, Livan Arronte, and deputy ministers of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment and Food Industry, Deborah Rivas and Diorgys Hernandez, respectively.

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The import of Iranian heavy crude is going to expand the two country’s energy cooperation as the two U.S.-sanctioned nations have already agreed on swapping Iran’s gas condensate for Venezuela’s crude oil.

The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) last year reached a deal with PDVSA to swap Venezuelan crude for Iranian condensate, which PDVSA would also use as a diluent and mix it with the tar-like crudes from the Orinoco oil belt for transportation and export.

Iran’s heavy crude, which is similar in quality to Venezuela’s Mesa 30 crude, is set to augment domestic oil fed to PDVSA’s refineries, according to the documents.

As part of the cooperation pacts, Venezuela in recent years has received Iranian equipment to revamp its refineries. The 146,000-barrel-per-day El Palito refinery is restarting a crude distillation unit this week after extensive repairs and upgrading that relied on equipment imported from Iran.

Iran’s Oil Minister Javad Oji traveled to Venezuela last week to meet President Nicolas Maduro and discuss trade agreements with his counterpart, Tareck El Aissami.

At least 200,000 barrels of Iranian heavy crude were delivered in mid-April to the 310,000-bpd Cardon refinery, Venezuela’s second largest. Another 400,000-barrels of Iranian oil, which arrived on the very large crude carrier (VLCC) Dino I, is discharging this week at the country’s Jose port, the PDVSA documents showed.

The Dino I is scheduled to set sail later this month carrying Venezuela fuel oil for NIOC unit Naftiran Intertrade Co, according to one of the documents.

The Islamic Republi also continues supplying PDVSA with condensate. Venezuela-owned tanker Maximo Gorki is set to discharge some two million barrels of condensate at Jose, and Iran-flagged Derya is in Venezuelan waters waiting to deliver its cargo, service TankerTrackers.com said.

As its oil output becomes heavier, Venezuela struggles to source medium and light grades for its refineries, contributing to limited production and intermittent scarcity of motor fuels.

The South American country also increasingly needs lighter crudes or refined products to turn its extra heavy oil output into exportable grades.

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