China Keeps Iranian Oil Flowing Through ‘Back Door’ Port During War

Sources cited in the report say Beijing and Tehran planned a route around the Strait of Hormuz before the conflict, allowing Iranian crude to continue flowing to China through opaque channels.

Xiaohua Li

Published: 3/19/2026, 5:05:55 AM EDT

China Keeps Iranian Oil Flowing Through ‘Back Door’ Port During War — Iranian flag with stock graph and an oil pump jack miniature model in this illustration taken on Oct. 9, 2023. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

As U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran intensify, there are concerns that the widening conflict—including potential retaliation or spillover—could disrupt or even shut down the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints.

But even as risks grew, shipments of Iranian crude continued arriving at Chinese ports, according to a person familiar with Sino-Iran oil trade.

Guo Shuqing (pseudonym for safety concerns), who spoke to The Epoch Times’ Chinese-language edition, said deliveries to ports in Shandong and Zhejiang have not been interrupted since the war began. The continued flow, Guo said, was the result of prior contingency planning between Beijing and Tehran.

According to Guo, officials had quietly discussed how to preserve oil flows to China if the Strait of Hormuz became too dangerous or was blocked. Chinese trade authorities also issued internal instructions ahead of the U.S.-Israeli campaign, directing agencies to prepare for both a potential cutoff of Iranian supply and increased purchases of Russian energy.

NTD could not independently verify the claims, but Guo’s account fits into a broader pattern that China remains the largest destination for Iranian crude, with much of it transported through opaque networks that complicate sanctions enforcement.

A ‘Back Door’ Route Built for Crisis

At the center of that contingency planning is Iran’s southeastern port of Jask, Guo said.

On the Gulf of Oman, the terminal allows tankers to load crude without passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint vulnerable to disruption during conflict.

“That is Iran’s only lifeline outside the Strait of Hormuz,” Guo said. “Tankers can load there and sail straight into the Gulf of Oman.”

A second person familiar with China’s diplomatic system told the outlet that Beijing had spent years preparing for such a scenario. Under China-Iran energy cooperation, Iran built the Goreh-Jask pipeline—a roughly 1,000-kilometer route linking inland oil fields to the Gulf of Oman, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The pipeline allows exports to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, serving as a fallback in the event of war or tighter sanctions. It is tied to the 25-year cooperation agreement signed by China and Iran in 2021, a framework widely reported to involve large-scale investments, though its full terms remain undisclosed.

Data from shipping tracker Kpler in March shows Iran has resumed limited shipments from its Jask terminal, including a roughly 2 million-barrel cargo loaded in early March. Overall exports have remained near prewar levels, with between roughly 12 million and 16 million barrels shipped since the conflict began, and China accounting for the vast majority of those flows.

Oil Money and Wartime Resilience

Oil exports are Tehran’s main source of revenue, funding government operations, military spending, and helping cushion the economic pressure typically expected during wartime.

Huang Lan, a retired scholar based in Belgium, said the trade goes beyond ordinary commerce.

“The oil flowing to China is, in essence, ‘war milk’ for Iran’s authoritarian regime,” Huang said. “As the international community tries to contain expansion and aggression, Beijing is using Jask as a ‘back door’ to funnel much-needed war funding to Tehran through gray-market trade.”

She said China is not only securing discounted resources and building strategic reserves, but also treating Iran as a geopolitical counterweight to the West.

“Behind these oil flows is an effort to build an ‘axis’ of energy security amid regional instability,” Huang said. “It underscores how Beijing may be emerging as a key beneficiary of the turmoil.”

China is not directly financing Iran’s military, but by continuing to buy large volumes of sanctioned crude, often at discounted prices, Beijing helps sustain a key revenue stream at a time when Western governments are trying to tighten pressure.

This dynamic underscores a challenge for Washington and its allies: that Iran’s continued oil sales—particularly to China—can weaken the impact of sanctions, sustain its finances, and potentially its ability to endure a prolonged conflict.