/Reuters Agency
The latest US sanctions against a Chinese crude oil terminal have forced the refining group Sinopec to divert a supertanker and also to ask some plants to reduce their crude processing rates, according to ship tracking data and Chinese consultancies.
A vessel transporting oil to the Chinese port of Rizhao, in Shandong province, changed its destination over the weekend, after the North American country recently imposed penalties on an import terminal in that port facility, according to LSEG data.
Shortly after the US announcement, Sinopec instructed about six subsidiary refineries that receive crude from the designated terminal to reduce their operating rates to 80% for the rest of October, according to the Chinese consultancy Sublime China Information.
Another consultancy, JLC, estimated on Saturday that Sinopec’s operations in October could decrease by 3.36% compared to previous plans, reaching approximately 5.16 million barrels per day.
LSEG data showed that the supertanker New Vista, chartered by Sinopec’s trading arm, Unipec, and originally scheduled to unload in Rizhao on Sunday, changed its destination to the ports of Ningbo and Zhoushan, with an expected arrival on October 15.
The New Vista can transport 2 million barrels of crude and is currently carrying Upper Zakum type oil, originating from Abu Dhabi.
The Rizhao Shihua Crude Oil Terminal, partly owned by a Sinopec logistics unit, was one of the entities included by the US Department of the Treasury in a round of sanctions that also covers vessels transporting Iranian crude oil and liquefied petroleum gas.
According to the US, the terminal – located in the city of Lanshan, in Shandong province, a major oil refining hub in China – was sanctioned for receiving Iranian oil on board already sanctioned ships.
According to industry executives and analysts, one fifth of Sinopec’s crude oil imports pass through the Rizhao terminal.
