Hengli Petrochemical, one of China's largest independent refiners, has denied any trade dealings with Iran after the United States imposed sanctions on one of its subsidiaries for allegedly buying Iranian oil.
Reuters reported the denial, citing the company's stock exchange filing on Sunday.
As per the report, the company stated it "has never engaged in any trade with Iran," and that all its crude oil suppliers "guaranteed that the origins of the crude oil supplied do not fall within the scope of US sanctions".
The company added that it has sufficient crude oil inventories to meet processing needs for more than three months and that its crude oil procurement activities have not been affected in any way.
Hengli further said the US sanctions "lack factual and legal basis" and pledged to strive to lift the relevant restrictions.
The denial came two days after the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), reportedly, sanctioned Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery Co. — China's second-largest independent or "teapot" refinery — describing it as one of Iran's largest customers for crude oil and other petroleum products, having purchased billions of dollars' worth of Iranian petroleum.
Since at least 2023, Hengli has received Iranian crude oil shipments overseen by Sepehr Energy Jahan Nama Pars Company, the oil sales arm of Iran's Armed Forces General Staff, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the Iranian military, the Treasury alleged.
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Along with Hengli, OFAC sanctioned approximately 40 shipping companies and vessels operating as part of Iran's shadow fleet.
The action is part of the Trump administration's "Economic Fury" campaign. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US is imposing a "financial stranglehold on the Iranian regime, hampering its aggression in the Middle East and helping to curtail its nuclear ambitions."
Beijing has rejected the move. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington said: "We call on the US to stop politicising trade and sci-tech issues and using them as a weapon and a tool and stop abusing various kinds of sanction to hit Chinese companies."
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China buys more than 80% of Iran's shipped oil, according to 2025 data from analytics firm Kpler.
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