Beijing stands by Iranian oil

摘要

China aims to maintain its role as Iran’s largest oil cus- tomer, as Beijing shuns pressure from Washington and the EU to isolate Tehran over its nuclear programme. Chinese refiners had delayed renewing term contracts with Iran this year, in the hope of securing better prices with Iran’s pool of buyers drying up because of tougher US and EU sanctions. China imported 435,000 b/d of crude from Iran in 2012, down by 21pc from 2011, with imports falling to 410,000 b/d in the first quarter of this year. But Chinese buyers agreed new contracts with Iran’s state-owned oil firm NIOC to receive 550,000 b/d from April.