US Treasury sanctions network supporting Iran’s oil exports

WASHINGTON

US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said it sanctioned on Thursday a network supporting Iran’s oil exports.

In a statement, the OFAC said it designated "a teapot oil refinery and its chief executive officer for purchasing and refining hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian crude oil, including from vessels linked to the Foreign Terrorist Organization, Ansarallah, commonly known as the Houthis, and the Iranian Ministry of Defense of Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL)."

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said teapot refinery purchases of Iranian oil "provide the primary economic lifeline for the Iranian regime, the world’s leading state sponsor of terror."

“The United States is committed to cutting off the revenue streams that enable Tehran’s continued financing of terrorism and development of its nuclear program," Bessent said in the statement.

The OFAC also imposed sanctions on 19 entities and vessels responsible for shipping millions of barrels of Iranian oil, comprising part of Iran’s "shadow fleet" of tankers supplying teapot refineries like Luqing Petrochemical.

Separately, the US Department of State said on Thursday that it sanctioned Huaying Huizhou Daya Bay Petrochemical Terminal Storage, an oil terminal in China, for buying and storing Iranian crude oil from a sanctioned vessel.

"'Teapot' refiners are private Chinese refineries that are the primary purchasers of Iranian oil. This will be the United States’ first designation of a teapot refinery," the department said.