Tanker buildup at Iran’s Kharg Island reaches post-blockade high

(Bloomberg) – Some 23 tankers have been spotted around Iran’s principal oil-export hub, the largest cluster to have gathered at the island since the U.S. Navy began a blockade on the country’s ports a month ago, interdicting and seizing ships.

The carriers — in anchorages around Kharg, berthed at crude- or liquefied petroleum gas-loading jetties — were visible on satellite images taken on May 16, reviewed by Bloomberg News and confirmed by analysis from United Against Nuclear Iran, a U.S. non-profit policy advisory group focused on Tehran. The current collection of tankers compares to four on April 13, just before U.S. warships began gathering in the Gulf of Oman to check and stop vessels.

“Vessels are accumulating at anchorages around the island, suggesting growing delays and bottlenecks across Iran’s crude and oil export system,” said Charlie Brown, an adviser to UANI.

Analysis of tanker movements in the Persian Gulf has been hampered by inconsistent signals and by the availability of satellite images. Not all areas are covered by the European Union’s Sentinel 1 and 2, which also do not take images daily — and even when they do, cloud cover can complicate the assessment.

The May 16 count includes a vessel apparently berthed in Kharg’s southeastern corner, at a terminal that primarily exports LPG, commonly used as cooking fuel. Crude-loading berths remained empty, satellite images show.

Activity at Kharg Island has slowed as disrupted exports mean storage has filled up. Without a rotation of laden tankers being able to leave the area and fresh, empty ones entering to load up on crude, Iran needs to slow down oil production. 

As of May 17, American forces have turned around 81 commercial vessels and disabled four ships as part of their blockade of Iranian ports, the U.S. Central Command said in a social-media post.

The unidentified ship at the LPG terminal is the second such vessel to be observed there since the war began. The Nidi — formerly the Gas Zeina, slightly larger in size than the one seen over the weekend — was observed at the facility in early April, before being spotted in waters off India’s west coast in early May, ship-tracking and satellite images show.