Iran stockpiles oil on ageing tankers anchored in the Gulf

{"text":[[{"start":10.7,"text":"Iran is being forced to store oil on ageing tankers anchored in the Gulf as the US blockade puts a squeeze on Tehran’s ability to export to the Far East."}],[{"start":21.75,"text":"About 39 tankers laden with Iranian oil and petrochemicals are currently in the Gulf, compared with 29 before the US blockade coming into force on April 13, according to data from United Against Nuclear Iran — with a major build-up of ships now moored near the Kharg Island oil export terminal."}],[{"start":39.9,"text":"The FT and Uani have also identified a further 13 suspected tankers moored off Iran’s Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman, on the eastern side of the Strait of Hormuz, just within the theoretical blockade line of the US Navy."}],[{"start":54,"text":"The build-up shows the apparent effectiveness of the US blockade, which has a stated aim of subjecting any Iranian vessels or those that are suspected of carrying Iranian cargoes to “visit, board, search and seizure” by the US Navy in an attempt to cut off Iran’s oil revenues."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":71.4,"text":"The blockade is the latest in a whipsaw White House policy on Iranian crude during the conflict, which is now dragging into its 11th week."}],[{"start":80.10000000000001,"text":"In March the US granted a 30-day sanctions waiver for Iranian crude that was already on the water, fearing that global oil prices were surging. Before the US-Israeli strikes, Iran was exporting 40 to 60mn barrels of oil per month — around 2 per cent of global supplies — using a fleet of ageing tankers that are mostly sanctioned by western governments but serve refineries in Asia."}],[{"start":104.5,"text":"But with no sign of Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz and Tehran reaping huge profits from the trade, the US decided in April to blockade Iranian ports and detain vessels that were trading its product globally."}],[{"start":119.15,"text":"US Central Command has said since the implementation of the blockade it has “redirected” 72 ships back to Iranian ports and disabled four. "}],[{"start":128.5,"text":"The effect has been to largely trap Iranian crude oil and has forced Tehran to bring back old tankers to use for at-sea storage."}],[{"start":137.6,"text":"A 30-year-old supertanker, for example, which analysts say was last used more than two years ago, started signalling a position in the Gulf at the end of April. "}],[{"start":147.2,"text":"Yui Torikata, an analyst at analytics firm Kpler, said that the amount of Iranian crude oil in tankers in the Gulf was at its “highest level since the beginning of the conflict and has remained elevated since early May”."}],[{"start":160.5,"text":"There are 42mn barrels of crude on Iranian tankers in the Middle East, up 65 per cent since the start of the conflict, Kpler said."}],[{"start":169.05,"text":"Antoine Halff, chief analyst at energy data firm Kayrros, said that Iran was attempting to “expand their runway” to avoid shutting down production."}],[{"start":177.5,"text":"Iran’s onshore storage has increased by roughly 10mn barrels, Kayrros data showed, pushing it to about 64 per cent full and giving Iran “a couple of weeks” of additional production time."}],[{"start":189.35,"text":"Iran has additional empty tankers within the US blockade that it could use for about 24mn barrels of additional floating storage, according to estimates from Kpler."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":199.79999999999998,"text":"The most dramatic rise in parked-up tankers has occurred around Kharg Island, Iran’s main export hub in the north of the Gulf, where 20 vessels are now resting — up from six a month ago, according to an FT analysis of data gathered by the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 satellites. "}],[{"start":218.04999999999998,"text":"The uptick is not visible in conventional shipping data, because the vessels are not broadcasting their positions to nearby traffic. The Sentinel-1 satellites work by firing radar beams at the ground and listening for the returning signals."}],[{"start":232.04999999999998,"text":"The ESA, whose imagery was also used to count the ships near Chabahar, is one of the few sources of satellite information now readily available that covers the region."}],[{"start":241.6,"text":"The public agency has continued to publish even as US commercial satellite providers, which dominate the sector, have restricted access to imagery of the region in response to requests from the US government."}],[{"start":254,"text":"No tankers, however, filled at Kharg between May 6, the day a large oil slick was detected by the terminal on satellite imagery, and May 14, according to maritime analyst Windward. The slick has since broken up and dispersed south and south-west of the island, satellite images show."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":274,"text":"Few ships appear to have passed the blockade. One, the Iranian-flagged tanker Huge, which loaded at Kharg on March 31 and left from the Gulf of Oman on April 14, appears to have taken an uneconomical route to apparently avoid the US Navy, passing through Indonesia’s Lombok Strait and on towards China, according to ship-tracking by UANI."}],[{"start":297.45,"text":"Normally Iranian tankers head through the Strait of Malacca to an anchorage off Malaysia where they perform ship-to-ship transfer on to Chinese tankers."}],[{"start":306.34999999999997,"text":"Data visualisation by Steven Bernard "}],[{"start":315.79999999999995,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1779170797_8136.mp3"}