US blacklists China, UAE companies over sale of Iran petrochemicals

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–The US has blacklisted on Wednesday four companies based in China and the UAE for facilitating exports of Iranian petrochemicals.

Sanctions were imposed on UAE’s Alpha Tech Trading FZE and Petroliance Trading Fze; and China’s Donghai International Ship Management Ltd and Petrochem South East Ltd for facilitating sales of Iranian petrochemicals by Hong Kong-based Triliance Petrochemical, which was blacklisted in January 2020.

“These China- and United Arab Emirates-based companies have provided Triliance with critical shipping services or conducted financial transactions on behalf of the company, enabling Triliance to continue brokering and moving Iranian petrochemical exports,” the US Treasury said in a statement dated 16 December.

The companies could not be reached for comment at the time of writing.

The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)  sanctioned Triliance and three other petrochemical and petroleum companies in January 2020 for collectively transferring “the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of exports from the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC)”, it said.

Meanwhile, the US Department of State has also imposed sanctions on Vietnam Gas and Chemicals Transportation Corp, as well as the company’s managing director Vo Ngoc Phung, in connection with transactions for the transport of petroleum products from Iran on or after 5 November 2018.

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