US sanctions Hengli refinery and 40 vessels
- The Trump administration on April 24 sanctioned China’s Hengli Petrochemical refinery in Dalian and about 40 shipping firms and vessels, saying they helped move Iranian crude and petroleum products. - Treasury said Hengli bought billions of dollars of Iranian oil and identified ships including BIG MAG, GALE, ARES and SEEKER 8 as major carriers into China for the trade. - The move expands Washington’s “maximum pressure” campaign after earlier April sanctions on another Iran oil network and raises new friction with Beijing. (treasury.gov)
The United States on April 24 sanctioned Hengli Petrochemical’s refinery in Dalian, China, and about 40 shipping firms and vessels tied to Iranian oil shipments. (treasury.gov) (apnews.com) The Treasury Department said Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery Co., Ltd. bought billions of dollars’ worth of Iranian crude oil and other petroleum products. Treasury described Hengli as one of the largest independent, or “teapot,” refineries in China. (treasury.gov) (reuters.com) Treasury said the action also hit 40 shipping firms and vessels operating in what Washington calls Iran’s “shadow fleet,” the tanker network used to move oil through front companies and opaque ownership structures. The department named vessels including BIG MAG, GALE, ARES, and SEEKER 8 in its filing. (treasury.gov) (cnbc.com) According to Treasury, BIG MAG, GALE, and ARES together delivered more than 5 million barrels of Iranian crude to Hengli, while SEEKER 8 moved more than 4 million barrels of crude oil to China earlier in 2026. Treasury also said Hengli has a crude processing capacity of about 400,000 barrels a day. (treasury.gov) (apnews.com) The sanctions are secondary sanctions, which means Washington is targeting non-U.S. companies accused of helping Iran sell oil abroad. President Donald Trump had threatened that step against buyers of Iranian oil, and the April 24 action made that threat concrete. (abcnews.go.com) (apnews.com) The move came nine days after Treasury sanctioned a separate network linked to Iranian oil shipper Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani. That April 15 action targeted more than two dozen people, companies, and vessels involved in moving Iranian oil and petrochemicals. (treasury.gov 1) (treasury.gov 2) Treasury issued a related general license on April 24 authorizing the wind-down of transactions involving Hengli through June 23, 2026. That kind of license gives counterparties time to exit business that would otherwise be blocked immediately. (ofac.treasury.gov) China pushed back. Its embassy in Washington said Beijing opposes what it called “illegal” unilateral sanctions and said normal trade and economic cooperation with Iran should not be harmed. (cnbc.com) (apnews.com) Analysts told Reuters that targeting a refinery is a visible escalation, but that sanctions on Chinese banks handling oil payments would bite harder. For now, Washington has gone after a major buyer, the vessels that fed it, and the companies behind those shipments. (reuters.com)
