CHINA - IRAN PARTNERSHIP

PLATTS - China and Iran have agreed to strengthen strategic cooperation during Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's visit to China, possibly paving the way for steady crude flows between the two countries.

The meeting with China's president Xi Jinping took place on Sunday on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in the eastern coastal city of Qingdao, and comes at a time when Iran faces reimposition of sanctions by the US, which could impact its crude oil exports.

China is the largest buyer of Iranian crude and did not reduce crude imports from Iran even at the height of the previous sanctions against Tehran in 2012.

In the first quarter of 2018, China's imports of Iranian crude rose 17.3% year on year to 658,000 b/d, making Iran its sixth-biggest supplier.

Xi and Rouhani agreed on Sunday to enhance bilateral pragmatic cooperation and pursue comprehensive strategic partnership, according to China's state-owned Xinhua news agency.

Xi also called on the two countries to deepen political relations to enhance strategic mutual trust, increase exchanges at all levels, and continue to support each other on issues of major concern involving their respective core interests, according to Xinhua news agency.

The latest agreement is expected to further advance bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership established during Xi's state visit to Iran in 2016.

Xinhua quoted Xi as saying that the Iran nuclear deal should continue to be implemented earnestly as it acts to stabilize the peace and stability in the Middle East as well as for the international non-proliferation regime.

International buyers of Iranian oil have until November 4 to wind down contracts before the US re-imposes sanctions on the oil, energy, shipping and insurance sectors, a US Treasury Department fact sheet showed.

-----

Earlier:

2018, June, 8, 13:00:00 CHINA OIL IMPORTS DOWN REUTERS - May shipments were 39.05 million tonnes, or 9.2 million barrels per day (bpd), according to data released on Friday by the General Administration of Customs. That compared to 9.6 million bpd in April and 8.76 million bpd in May, 2017.

2018, June, 4, 13:30:00 IRAN NEEDS SUPPORT SHANA - The Iranian Minister of Petroleum further stressed that should the sanctions lead to any reduction in the oil market share of the I.R. Iran, Tehran, once the illegal limitations were resolved, reserves the right to return to its oil market share in the shortest possible time and resume its normal production-level and that it would not accept any limitations in that regard.

2018, May, 30, 13:30:00 CHINA'S ECONOMY GROWTH 6.6% IMF - China’s economic growth accelerated in 2017 and is expected to weaken only slightly in 2018 to 6.6 percent and moderate gradually to about 5½ percent by 2023.

2018, May, 28, 11:15:00 CHINA BUYS RECORD PLATTS - China's state-run oil trader Unipec has purchased around 16 million barrels of US crude oil for loading in June, marking the biggest volume ever to be lifted in a month by the company, informed sources said

2018, May, 23, 10:35:00 U.S. - CHINA ENERGY TRADE PLATTS - China became the largest contributor to global LNG consumption growth in 2017. It surpassed South Korea as the world's second largest LNG importer and its share of global LNG demand is expected to converge with that of Japan by 2030.

2018, May, 21, 11:00:00 IRAN & VENEZUELA SANCTIONS NYT - China and India are the biggest buyers of Iranian crude, but they also provide markets for 40 percent of Venezuelan exports, which have been plummeting under the weight of mismanagement, debt and American financial sanctions.

2018, February, 7, 08:10:00 CHINA: THE WORLD'S LARGEST EIA - China surpassed the United States in annual gross crude oil imports in 2017, importing 8.4 million barrels per day (b/d) compared with 7.9 million b/d for the United States. China had become the world’s largest net importer (imports minus exports) of total petroleum and other liquid fuels in 2013. New refinery capacity and strategic inventory stockpiling combined with declining domestic oil production were the major factors contributing to the recent increase in China’s crude oil imports.