A supertanker carrying oil to the Chinese port of Rizhao in Shandong Province changed its destination over the weekend after the US imposed sanctions on an import terminal at the port on Friday, LSEG data showed.
The very large crude carrier New Vista, chartered by Unipec — the trading arm of China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, known as Sinopec — switched its destination to the ports of Ningbo and Zhoushan for arrival on October 15, according to LSEG data.
The New Vista was originally scheduled to discharge at Rizhao on Sunday. The vessel can carry two million barrels of crude and is currently transporting Abu Dhabi’s Upper Zakum oil.
Sinopec did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Rizhao Shihua Crude Oil Terminal, half-owned by a Sinopec logistics unit, was among the entities listed by the US Treasury in a new round of sanctions. These also included ships transporting Iranian crude oil and liquefied petroleum gas, as well as an independent Chinese refinery.
The terminal, located in Lanshan in Shandong Province — a major Chinese oil refining hub — was sanctioned for receiving Iranian oil on board vessels already under sanctions, according to the US Treasury.
Sinopec handles about one-fifth of its crude oil imports through the Rizhao terminal, industry executives and analysts said.
(Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Reuters)