The U.S. said China and Singapore have “significantly reduced” their purchases of Iranian oil, earning exemptions from U.S. financial sanctions that otherwise would have been imposed yesterday.
China was the biggest importer of Iranian crude last year, and Singapore is Asia’s oil trading and refining hub. The U.S. granted renewable, 180-day exemptions on March 20 to Japan and 10 European Union nations. India, South Korea, Turkey, South Africa, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Taiwan won exemptions June 11.
An EU ban on Iranian oil imports goes into effect July 1. The EU collectively was the second-largest buyer of Iranian oil in the first half of 2011. As a nation, Japan ranked second behind China, according to the U.S. Energy Department.
Clinton said reduced oil exports are costing Iran almost $8 billion a quarter in lost revenue. That estimate is based on a drop in crude exports to 1.5 million barrels a day from 2.5 million a day in 2011 as reported by the International Energy Agency in Paris, she said.
“Secretary Clinton has assured me that at this time China has met the significant reduction standard required by the law and recent precedent to qualify for an exemption from sanctions,” said Democratic Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, who sponsored the legislation with Republican Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois.
Mark Wallace, chief executive officer of United Against Nuclear Iran, a New York-based advocacy group, said in an e-mail that the world oil supply presents a “unique opportunity” for nations to stop all Iranian oil purchases.
Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, who heads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in an e- mailed statement that the administration granted a “free pass” to China, which she called “Iran’s biggest enabler.”
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