China's Hengli caught in crosshairs of escalating US-Iran oil crackdown

What are the precedents?

Last year, in separate actions, the US imposed sanctions on several Chinese entities including three small refiners, moves that sources said created difficulties receiving crude and led two of them to sell product under other names.

Last October, the US sanctioned an import terminal through which Chinese state refining giant Sinopec received one-fifth of its crude. That measure led to the terminal's idling for months, disrupting crude flows and forcing cargo diversions as traders avoided it for fear of secondary sanctions, Reuters reported.

A logistics unit of Sinopec eventually sold its stake in the facility to a local port operator.

Another 400,000-bpd Chinese refiner with a Singapore presence, Shandong Yulong Petrochemical, last year saw non-Russian suppliers, foreign customers, banks and vendors stop doing business with it after it came under sanctions from Britain and the European Union for dealing in Russian oil. The measures increased Yulong's reliance on Russian oil.