China’s two largest oil companies, CNPC and Sinopec have not ordered any Iranian oil cargoes to load this month after the expiry of the sanction waivers Washington had granted China and seven other Iranian oil importers, Reuters reports , citing unnamed sources. The news comes despite statements from Beijing that it will not comply with the U.S. sanctions against Iran and will continue trading with the country including buying crude oil from it. China is the biggest buyer of Iranian crude, most recently at a rate of 475,000 bpd, over the first quarter of 2019. That amount is above the quota that the U.S. assigned to China as part of the waiver. The Reuters sources said, however, that the refiners are worried about sanction violation penalties as both have enough exposure to the U.S. banking system to be vulnerable to such penalties. Even so, one of the sources said, […]