Written by Florence Tan
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A supertanker en route to the Chinese port of Rizhao in Shandong province altered its destination over the weekend following the imposition of sanctions by the U.S. on an import terminal at the port, according to data from LSEG.
The Very Large Crude Carrier New Vista, which is chartered by Unipec, the trading division of China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, also known as Sinopec, redirected its course to the ports of Ningbo and Zhoushan, with an expected arrival on October 15, as per LSEG data.
Initially, the New Vista was set to unload at Rizhao on Sunday, based on the reported data. This vessel has a capacity of 2 million barrels and is currently transporting oil from Abu Dhabi’s Upper Zakum field.
No immediate comment was received from Sinopec regarding this change.
The Rizhao Shihua Crude Oil Terminal, which is partially owned by a Sinopec logistics subsidiary, was included in the recent sanctions enacted by the U.S. Treasury, which also targeted vessels carrying Iranian crude oil and liquefied petroleum gas, in addition to an independent Chinese refinery.
This terminal, located in Lanshan city, Shandong province—a significant hub for oil refining in China—was sanctioned for accepting Iranian oil shipments on sanctioned vessels, according to U.S. sources.
Industry experts and analysts note that Sinopec processes roughly one-fifth of its crude imports through the Rizhao terminal.
(Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing done by Christian Schmollinger)
