Iranian crude sellers are offering discounts to Chinese buyers as oil shipments ramp up in the wake of the interim US-Iran peace deal. The price cuts target China’s independent “teapot” refiners, the scrappy smaller processors that have long been the primary consumers of sanctioned Iranian barrels.
China historically receives roughly 90% of the country’s oil exports.
From blockade to barrels in transit
In May 2026, exports had cratered to somewhere between 65,000 and 160,000 barrels per day. Iran was shipping well over a million barrels daily before the escalating conflict that preceded the deal.
The interim peace agreement, signed between June 17 and 19, changed the calculus overnight. Under the deal’s framework, Iran can resume oil sales through waivers, and shipments are already in transit from ports like Chabahar on Iran’s southeastern coast.
