Gulf Insider
If it was indeed Trump’s intention to starve Iran’s economy of oil export revenue, the plan may just be working: Iran’s oil exports fell to their lowest level in at least six years in May as the US naval blockade has succeeded in choking off crude shipments and leave tens of millions of barrels stranded at sea. According to shipping data from Vortexa, Iran exported just 209,000 barrels per day of crude oil and condensate in May, down from 1.34 million bpd in April and nearly 1.9 million bpd in March. Kpler had estimated May exports slightly higher at 260,000 bpd, but still the lowest level since the height of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign in 2019-2020. When the blockade first took effect in April, analysts expected Tehran to lean on floating storage while waiting for an opportunity to move barrels, which it did with ease as it had control of the strait thanks to its own blockade (much to our surprise, as we asked back in early March why the US didn’t do the same). But storage is no longer growing. According to Kpler, floating inventories have fallen from roughly 190 million barrels in late April to about 147 […]
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