China hiked its imports of crude oil from Iran in June, as Iran accelerated loadings in May and independent Chinese refiners bought more discounted Iranian barrels.
Amid overall high imports in recent weeks, thanks to the lower oil prices in April and May when cargoes were bought, China significantly boosted its imports of crude from Iran this month, according to data from tanker-tracking firms cited by Reuters.
Vortexa put the Chinese oil imports from Iran at a record high of 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in the period June 1 to June 20. Kpler’s data showed that the Chinese imports of Iranian oil averaged 1.46 million bpd between June 1 and 27. That’s nearly 500,000 bpd higher than the estimated Chinese imports from Iran in May.
The high volumes of Iranian oil going into China is due to multi-year high Iranian crude oil loadings in May and Chinese independent refiners, the so-called teapots, bringing in more supply of the cheaper Iranian crude to fill inventories for the peak summer demand season.
Iran hiked its daily oil exports by 44% in the week after the first Israeli attack on the Islamic Republic, as Tehran appeared to aim to ship out as much crude as possible amid hostilities.
Analysts expect Chinese oil imports from Iran to remain at high levels in the coming weeks amid signals from the U.S. Administration that it would be more lenient toward China buying Iran’s oil.
Following the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, U.S. President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social this week that “China can now continue to purchase Oil from Iran. Hopefully, they will be purchasing plenty from the US, also.”
This declaration signals a notable pivot from the so-called “maximum pressure” campaign Trump reinstated in February 2025, which aimed to slash Iranian oil exports to near zero. Instead, Trump appears to be leveraging this concession to coax China into importing American energy—linking geopolitical maneuvers with trade incentives.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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