U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that there has been a substantial decrease in China’s purchases of Iranian oil. “We have sanctioned Chinese… so-called teapot refineries, which are the private refineries, and we’ve seen a substantial decrease in their purchases of Iranian oil,” Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business Network.
“The Chinese, in general, because of the prices and because they have a very large strategic petroleum reserve, have dropped their purchases of crude over the past few months by about 40%, and that’s directly pressuring the Iranian regime,” Bessent said.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey, writing by Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Doina Chiacu)