Text / Reporter Zhu Ruiying
On June 27, local time, the U.S. State Department issued a statement announcing sanctions against entities and vessels involved in Iran's oil and petrochemical trade.
Previously, on April 23, the Foreign Aid Act was voted by the Senate and House of Representatives, and was signed into law by US President Joe Biden on April 24. The Iran-China Energy Sanctions Act in the Foreign Aid Act also came into force.
In the statement, the U.S. State Department announced sanctions against three Emirati entities involved in the shipment of Iranian oil and petrochemicals, and also identified 11 vessels associated with these entities as assets frozen. The assets and transactions of the sanctioned targets in the United States will be frozen and restricted, the statement said.
(Source: U.S. Department of State website)
A number of entities are facing sanctions
This is the latest round of sanctions launched by the United States against the Iranian oil industry. According to a report by The Guardian on the 27th, U.S. Secretary of State Blinken issued a statement saying that Iran had expanded its uranium enrichment program in the past month in a way that could not be believed to be for peaceful purposes. To curb the expansion of Iran's nuclear program, the United States imposed a ban on three unnamed entities involved in the shipment of Iranian oil or petrochemicals.
被制裁的实体包括Sea Route Ship Management FZE、Almanac Ship Management LLC和Al Anchor Ship Management FZE。 这些公司都参与了从伊朗运输石油或石化产品的重大交易。
根据美国国务院的说法,Sea Route Ship Management FZE作为"ASTRA"轮的商业管理公司,涉嫌在2021年11月底从伊朗运输石化产品。 Almanac Ship Management LLC和Al Anchor Ship Management FZE分别管理"BERENICE PRIDE"轮和"PARINE"轮,涉嫌在2022年10月下旬从伊朗运输石油产品。
除三家航运公司外,美国国务院还将11艘相关船只列为"冻结财产",包括"ASTRA"轮、"BALTIC HORIZON"轮、"NILE"轮、"YAMUNA"轮、"BERENICE PRIDE"轮、"HARMONY"轮、"EURO VIKING"轮、"EURO FORTUNE"轮、"ARABIAN ENERGY"轮、"PARINE"和"ROAD"轮。
Under the sanctions, all property and property interests of these entities within the United States or held by U.S. citizens, including any foreign affiliates, are frozen and must be reported to the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Asset Control (OFAC). The rule also prohibits U.S. persons from engaging in any transaction involving the property or property interests of a blocked or designated individual within the United States.
In addition, the U.S. Treasury Department has announced sanctions against a number of companies that help transport and sell Iranian oil and petrochemicals. These companies are considered part of Iran's oil trading network, helping Iran circumvent international sanctions by providing transportation, insurance, and other services. U.S. sanctions on these companies are aimed at cutting off the supply chain of Iran's oil trade and further weakening its economy.
Iran's oil supply chain is swimming against the current
The U.S. sanctions on entities involved in Iran's petrochemical trade are largely based on its long-standing policy of economic sanctions against Iran. Iran is one of the world's largest oil and gas reserves, and its petrochemical industry has great potential.
Over the years, Iran has struggled to develop its petrochemical industry to reduce its dependence on oil exports and create jobs for the domestic economy. The United States believes that Iran's oil exports and petrochemical trade provide it with an important economic source and an important means of supporting terrorism and regional expansion.
(Source: Xinhua News Agency)
Since the beginning of this year, the United States has repeatedly targeted oil tankers suspected of carrying Iranian crude oil, sanctioning two in February and 13 in April, but such sanctions have had little restriction on Iranian oil exports.
Over the past year, Iran's fleet for transporting oil has grown by about 20% to 253 vessels, and the number of supertankers carrying 2 million barrels of oil has doubled since 2021.
On June 28, local time, the U.S. Senate Budget Committee announced that it had begun investigating 18 oil producers for possible "illegal collusion" with OPEC and then profiting from raising oil prices, which harmed the interests of U.S. consumers and government departments.
It is reported that the manufacturers under investigation by the Senate committee include ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum, BP, Shell, Chesapeake Energy, Chevron and ConocoPhillips, among others.
The commission asked the oil producers to submit a series of documents by July 12, including all communications between employees involved in production at each company and OPEC representatives since 2020, records of communications between executives of different oil companies, etc.
A few days ago, Iran's oil minister Javad Owji announced that Iran's oil exports have tripled since the late President Raisi took office three years ago, and no U.S. government can stop Iran's oil production and exports.
He stressed that the country is facing a serious energy imbalance, including unstable fuel supply, gas storage projects being abandoned, and development plans for many onshore and offshore shared oil fields being ignored. But the oil sector remains the backbone of domestic economic growth, with half of the country's economic growth coming from the performance of the oil sector, which has been declared to have an economic growth rate of 20% at the Iranian Statistical Center, which has topped the list for three consecutive years.
In fact, unless the United States blockades the relevant waters, Iran can still transport crude oil by replacing the bill of lading and STS, and the effect of sanctions is very limited.
Sanctions and legislation cannot restore hegemony
In recent years, the global container shipping market has fluctuated frequently, and geopolitical tensions have made the otherwise stable shipping routes extremely turbulent.
According to the report, 60 per cent of the world's oil trade is currently carried out by sea, with the majority of it occurring between producers in the Persian Gulf and West Africa and consuming countries in Europe, Asia and the Pacific and the Americas. According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the Strait of Hormuz is the world's most important oil "choke point", responsible for about one-third of the world's oil export supply, with an average of one oil tanker entering and leaving the strait every five minutes.
(Source: Xinhua News Agency)
In 2022, the Strait of Hormuz had an average of 21 million barrels per day of oil circulation, equivalent to 21% of global oil consumption, and its security is particularly critical for major oil importers such as China, Japan, and India, and has a significant impact on the global oil supply chain. Due to various reasons such as economic constraints and geopolitical conflicts in the United States, Iran has repeatedly announced that it will blockade the Strait of Hormuz.
A few days ago, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Iran-China Energy Sanctions Act, which targets all Chinese financial institutions that buy oil from Iran. With this move, the United States issued a clear warning that China would stop buying Iranian oil or face sanctions.
The report claims that the bill stipulates that any transaction by a Chinese financial institution to buy oil from Iran is a "material financial transaction" and is subject to sanctions.
The recent U.S. policy on Iranian oil imports and exports also includes threats against any company or entity that buys Iranian oil globally, and the U.S. may even directly confiscate the assets of these companies and require all ships operated by these companies not to dock at Iranian ports.
The U.S. aggressive targeting of Iran's petrochemical industry is based on the current political factors of the election and intends to deter geopolitical escalation, but the long-term hegemony of the United States has gradually wavered.
For a long time, the US dollar has established its hegemony in the global financial system through the "oil-dollar-US debt" agreement with oil exporting countries such as Saudi Arabia, as well as the support of the international settlement system SWIFT. However, in recent years, the influence of the US dollar is gradually waning as the global economic landscape changes, especially the questioning of the dominance of the US dollar by oil producers in the Middle East.
According to a report by the US financial website ZeroHedge, the United Arab Emirates, a major oil producer in the Middle East, has given up the dollar in oil trade, a move seen as the sounding of the death knell of the petrodollar. The UAE's move aims to diversify its economic partnership by updating the payment methods for the petrodollar agreement.
With the intensification of geopolitical conflicts, the global energy supply chain is facing deeper restructuring and the slow development of globalization, and the international oil and gas trade pattern will continue to explore new developments in the conflict.