China's key oil ports have restricted access to Russia's shadow fleet.

China is closing key oil ports on the eastern coast for tankers that are subject to U.S. sanctions. This region imports significant volumes of sanctioned oil from the Russian Federation, Iran, and Venezuela. This was reported by Reuters on Wednesday, January 8.

It is noted that one of China's largest port operators, Shandong Port Group, has prohibited berthing, unloading, or providing port services to vessels on the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control list.

The Chinese Shandong Port Group controls ports on the eastern coast of the country, including Qingdao, Rizhao, and Yantai, which are major terminals for importing sanctioned oil.

In 2024, the eastern Chinese province of Shandong imported about 1.74 million barrels of oil per day from Iran, Russia, and Venezuela, accounting for approximately 17% of China’s imports.

The company hopes that the unloading ban will have a limited impact on private refiners, as most of the sanctioned oil is transported on tankers that are not subject to sanctions.

According to Michelle Wiese Bockmann, chief analyst at Lloyd's List Intelligence, an active shadow fleet transporting Iranian, Russian, and Venezuelan oil consists of about 669 tankers. Of these, 250-300 tankers typically transport Russian oil, excluding the largest Iranian operator NITC and the Russian tanker group Sovcomflot.

From October to December, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on 35 tankers that are part of Iran's shadow fleet, excluding vessels operated by NITC. At the beginning of 2024, Washington imposed separate sanctions against Sovcomflot.

According to sources from Reuters, this week the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden plans to impose sanctions on over 100 additional tankers transporting Russian oil.

As noted by The Maritime Executive, China may have taken this step as part of broader trade negotiations it hopes to conduct with the administration of incoming U.S. President Donald Trump. In this way, China is attempting to avoid Trump’s plans for significant tariff increases on Chinese goods.