Iran stores 21 million barrels of oil on floating tanker in Gulf of Oman

Iran is holding over twenty million barrels of crude in floating storage in the Gulf of Oman, according to estimates based on satellite imagery analysis.

Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com, told the Associated Press (AP) that the monitoring group analysed imagery from the European Space Agency’s Copernicus-2 satellite to determine the types of Iranian oil tankers present in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend.

They detected 10 “Very Large Crude Carrier” supertankers - which can carry 2 million barrels of oil each - along with 1 Suezmax tanker, which has a capacity of 1 million barrels, in the Gulf of Oman as of April 13, totalling 21 million barrels.

Iran may be storing the oil in floating reserves to “better regulate exports amid turbulence”, or as a precaution against disruptions at Kharg Island, the group said on X.

Kharg Island, which was struck by the US during the war, hosts a terminal through which Iran exports the majority of its oil.

By Jeyhun Aghazada