The US Thursday exempted China and Singapore for 180 days from sanctions levied against countries who trade with Iran.
In announcing the decision, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement that both countries, "have significantly reduced their volume of crude oil purchases from Iran."
The State Department said the latest action brings to 20 the number of countries that have now qualified for such an exception.
"Their cumulative actions are a clear demonstration to Iran's government that Iran's continued violation of its international nuclear obligations carries an enormous economic cost," Clinton said in the statement, adding: "When the European Union oil embargo goes into effect July 1, Iran's leaders will understand even more fully the urgency of the choice they face and the unity of the international community."
As of Thursday, "any foreign financial institution based in a country that has not received [an exception] is subject to US sanctions if it knowingly conducts a significant transaction with the Central Bank of Iran for the sale or purchase of petroleum or petroleum products to or from Iran," the statement said.
The statement said Iran's crude exports have fallen to about 1.5 million b/d, from 2.5 million b/d last year, according to figures from the International Energy Agency. The decline means Iran is losing about $8 billion in revenues every quarter, the State Department said.
In a conference call with reporters, several senior administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said China's reductions may have come for its own domestic energy security reasons, but, nevertheless, qualified as meaningful reductions for the purposes of the US sanctions law.
"On June 27, an authoritative statement was published on a China energy website," one official said. "In this statement, the Chinese had indicated there has been a structural change in China's crude oil imports due to the downward pressure on the economy."
The statement also said China would continue to see reductions for the rest of 2012.
"China has taken these actions for its own commercial and energy security reasons," the official said. "Still, these actions are very much aligned with our shared global interests and allow us to move forward with the exception we are moving forward with today."
The exception for Singapore was based on a recent statement from the government that it had not imported an Iranian crude in May, a second administration official said.
"They've made a decision based on their own diversification of resources to reduce and terminate their imports of crude oil going forward," one senior administration official said.
The exceptions are for 180 days and are renewable under the latest US sanctions law. But the renewal "requires a determination that further significant reductions are being made," one official said.
