By Florence Tan
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A supertanker carrying oil to China’s Rizhao port in Shandong province changed its destination from there over the weekend after the United States imposed sanctions on an import terminal at the port on Friday, LSEG data shows.
The Very Large Crude Carrier New Vista, chartered by Unipec, the trading arm of China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, known as Sinopec, changed its destinations to the ports of Ningbo and Zhoushan for its arrival on October 15, LSEG data showed.
The New Vista was originally scheduled to unload at Rizhao on Sunday, the data showed. The ship can carry 2 million barrels of crude oil and is currently carrying Upper Zakum oil from Abu Dhabi.
Sinopec did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Rizhao Shihua crude oil terminal, half owned by a Sinopec logistics unit, was among entities listed by the U.S. Treasury in a round of sanctions that also includes ships carrying Iranian crude oil and liquefied petroleum gas, as well as a standalone Chinese refinery.
The terminal, in the city of Lanshan in Shandong province, a major Chinese oil refining hub, was sanctioned for receiving Iranian oil aboard sanctioned vessels, the United States said.
Sinopec handles a fifth of its crude oil imports at the Rizhao terminal, according to industry executives and analysts.
(Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)