A supertanker carrying 2 million barrels of crude destined for the Chinese port of Rizhao in Shandong province changed course over the weekend after the U.S. imposed sanctions on an import terminal at the port on Friday, according to LSEG data.
The Very Large Crude Carrier New Vista, chartered by Unipec, the trading arm of China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec), was rerouted to the ports of Ningbo and Zhoushan, with arrival scheduled for October 15. Originally, the vessel was set to discharge at Rizhao on Sunday. It is carrying Abu Dhabi’s Upper Zakum oil.
The Rizhao Shihua Crude Oil Terminal, half-owned by a Sinopec logistics unit, was among the entities targeted in the latest U.S. Treasury sanctions, which also include ships transporting Iranian crude oil and liquefied petroleum gas, as well as an independent Chinese refinery. The terminal, located in Lanshan, a major oil refining hub in Shandong, was sanctioned for receiving Iranian oil on sanctioned vessels, the U.S. said.