The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on dozens of people, companies and ships tied to Iran’s oil sector, stepping up its campaign against a key revenue source for Tehran.
The Treasury announced more than 50 targets aimed at people who help to facilitate Iran’s shipments of liquified petroleum gas, and include a Chinese port and a China-based “teapot” oil refinery.
The US State Department said in a statement that it had slapped sanctions on around 40 others, including “some of the largest buyers of Iranian petrochemical products by volume and value, as well as the leadership of the companies involved in that trade.”
The new flurry of sanctions comes less than two weeks after the UN announced so-called snapback sanctions against Iran over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, deepening Tehran’s isolation on the world stage.
Iran has long contended that it is not seeking nuclear weapons, but it has been enriching uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, barring UN nuclear inspectors, and regularly threatening to destroy Israel.
“The Treasury Department is degrading Iran’s cash flow by dismantling key elements of Iran’s energy export machine,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement announcing the sanctions on Thursday.
Among those targeted was Shandong Jincheng Petrochemical Group Co., a China-based refinery that the Treasury Department said had purchased millions of barrels of Iranian oil since 2023.
The Treasury also hit the company that operates the Rizhao Shihua Crude Oil Terminal at Lanshan Port, accusing it of accepting more than a dozen shadow fleet vessels shipping millions of barrels of Iranian oil.
Thursday’s actions are the Treasury’s fourth set of sanctions targeting China-based refineries since US President Donald Trump’s return to office in January, according to the statement.
The move adds to the hundreds of people, firms and ships punished for their links to Iran as part of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign.
The Treasury’s designation means that any “property and interests in property” held by the sanctions targets in the United States, or controlled by a US citizen, permanent resident or company, are now blocked and must be reported to the its sanctions division.
Any companies owned directly or indirectly by one of the sanctioned individuals are also blocked, the Treasury said.
“So long as Iran attempts to generate oil revenues to fund its subversive activities, the United States will act to counter and to promote accountability for Iran and its partners in sanctions evasion,” US State Department principal deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement.