Iran Storing Oil on Aging Tankers; 42m Barrels Around Kharg, Chabahar
Iran has expanded its oil storage by reusing ten aging tankers to hold crude oil clustered around Kharg Island and Chabahar Port, citing United Against Nuclear Iran and the Financial Times. Maritime intelligence firm Kpler estimates Iran has 42 million crude oil barrels in floating storage in the Middle East — a 65 percent increase since the conflict began — with roughly 24 million additional barrels on empty tankers within the US blockade area. Energy intelligence firm Kayrros assesses Iran’s onshore storage has risen by about 10 million barrels to 64 percent capacity, leaving only a few weeks’ worth of oil production space.
the storage strain as a real and accelerating economic constraint on the Iranian regime — but explicitly cautions that “Iranian leaders have proven that they care little for the economic well-being of the Iranian people beyond the impact the economic well-being of the people has on regime stability”. Domestic pressure indicators are nonetheless rising: President Masoud Pezeshkian on 19 May called for long-term planning to mitigate war-related economic impacts; officials warned of rising drug prices potentially fuelling public discontent; anti-regime media reported gasoline shortages and at least one localised worker protest over wages in Zanjan City in northwestern Iran. The US Treasury yesterday separately intensified pressure with sanctions on the Amin Exchange and blocking 19 vessels linked to illicit Iranian oil exports.