China has drastically increased its oil imports from Iran and Venezuela in a challenge to two foreign policy priorities of the Biden administration, according to US officials, undermining the key diplomatic leverage Washington needs to restart the negotiations stopped.
China is expected to import 918,000 barrels a day from Iran in March, which would be the highest volume since a total oil embargo was imposed on the United States against Tehran two years ago, according to commodity data company Kpler.
This trend is confirmed by other maritime trackers, some of whom record these sales at one million barrels per day.
“If it sells 1 million barrels a day at current prices, Iran has no incentive to negotiate,” said Sara Vakhshouri, president of Washington-based SVB Energy International and an expert on Iran’s oil industry.
President Biden’s administration has tried to commit to Iran to return to a 2015 nuclear deal that was abandoned by its predecessor, former President Donald Trump. But Tehran has rejected openings so far.