The House is scheduled to vote on Monday on several bills that aim to strengthen sanctions on Iran, in response to the recent Iranian drone attack against Israel. One of these bills is focused on reducing Chinese imports of Iranian crude oil.
The bills up for a vote, under an expedited procedure, include the Iran-China Energy Sanctions Act of 2023. This particular bill, which received unanimous approval from the House Financial Services Committee in November, aims to impose sanctions related to energy trade between Iran and China.
The bill broadens secondary sanctions related to Iran by extending them to encompass all transactions between Chinese financial institutions and sanctioned Iranian banks involved in the purchase of petroleum and petroleum products. The bill will also require the U.S. to annually assess whether Chinese financial institutions have participated in activities subject to sanctions.
China has emerged as a significant purchaser of Iranian crude, demonstrating a willingness to disregard Western sanctions on Iranian, Russian, or Venezuelan oil exports.
If sanctions against Iran are rigorously enforced, ING analysts estimate that between 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) and 1 million bpd of oil supply could be lost.
