عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Business

Iran to Store Its Oil in Fleet of Supertankers

Oil tanker. (File Photo: Reuters)
Oil tanker. (File Photo: Reuters)
TT
TT

Iran to Store Its Oil in Fleet of Supertankers

Oil tanker. (File Photo: Reuters)
Oil tanker. (File Photo: Reuters)

Iran seems to be struggling again from US sanctions and despite major buyers announcement for their full compliance with Washington’s will to fully stop any incoming Iranian oil, Tehran is starting to store oil in fleet of supertankers again as impending US sanctions force the Gulf country to revive a strategy it deployed under previous curbs.

Bloomberg’s tanker tracking data revealed there are currently eight tankers holding 14 million barrels of Iranian crude or condensate, a form of light crude extracted from gas fields, anchored in the Persian Gulf. This indicates that Iran is having a hard time finding buyers for its oil.

The build-up in Iranian oil supplies underscores the pressure that Iran is facing as Washington aims to bring Iranian oil exports down to zero to force Tehran to re-negotiate a nuclear deal.

The Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) Felicity loaded condensate at Iran’s Assaluyeh port in early August and then set sail for Jebel Ali in the UAE, shipping and trade flows data on Reuters showed. It arrived at the ship-to-ship transfer area off Dubai on Aug. 7 and has been anchored there since.

Last year, China was the largest buyer of Iranian crude accounting for almost a third of Iran’s crude and condensate exports.

Exports so far this month slumped to around 1.3 million barrels a day (bpd) after they were as high as 3 million bpd back in 2016.

Iran finally managed to get Dino I and Dune to China out of Kharg Island. The last vessel to make the journey was the supertanker Starla, which left on Aug. 25 carrying two million barrels.

During the first half of this year, Iran shipped 660,000 bpd of oil to China. To maintain that rate of purchases, five to six supertankers should have left for China in the past 18 days. So far, most of the ships have only been holding crude at sea for a few weeks, rather than for months at a time as they did during 2012-2016 sanctions, tanker tracking compiled by Bloomberg show.

Almost all of Iran’s main customers purchased fewer Iranian barrels in August than they did in April, the month before Trump said sanctions were being reimposed.

Regardless of the motivation, flows to China have plunged at a difficult moment for Iran, with buyers including South Korea, France and others either reducing or completely stopping their purchases due to US pressure. Tanker tracking compiled by Bloomberg indicates that OPEC’s fourth-largest exporter is already having to store barrels amid dwindling demand.

The tankers, carrying about 2.4 million barrels of South Pars condensate combined, have been floating off the UAE since August after South Korea halted imports from Iran while China’s demand dropped during summer, according to several industry sources and shipping data.

International Energy Agency (IEA) said the impact of the sanctions will soon affect Iran as the country’s crude output fell by 150,000 bpd in July compared with same time last year. Exports fell 280,000 bpd reaching to 1.9 million bpd from a peak of 2.5 million bpd in May.

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) monthly report released on Thursday showed Iran's oil production fell by 150,000 bpd in August, despite OPEC's monthly oil production rising 278 million bpd to reach 32.6 million bpd.

Iran's oil production fell for the fourth month in a row, according to OPEC data, to 3.584 million barrels, compared to 3.734 million barrels last July.

Iran will face US sanctions on its oil sector in early November. Trump administration's aim is to stop Iranian exports altogether. China, Iran's biggest oil importer, said it will continue to import oil from Tehran.

Most Viewed

 
 
Business

US Ban on $1 Billion Worth of Canadian Imports Goes into Effect

Shipping containers in the Port of Montreal, Canada (Reuters)
Shipping containers in the Port of Montreal, Canada (Reuters)
TT
TT

US Ban on $1 Billion Worth of Canadian Imports Goes into Effect

Shipping containers in the Port of Montreal, Canada (Reuters)
Shipping containers in the Port of Montreal, Canada (Reuters)

US-Canada relations, already tense, are likely to deteriorate further after the United States went ahead early Tuesday with a decision to ban nearly $1 billion worth of Canadian imports, including dairy products and motorcycles.

The ban amounts to barely a ripple in $880 billion worth of a two-way annual trade between the two northern neighbors. But it marks another ratcheting up of President Donald Trump’s second-term trade war with America’s longtime ally and trading partner.

The import ban “certainly won't do anything to help the trade tensions between the United States and Canada,'' said trade attorney Patrick Childress, a partner at Holland & Knight and a former US trade official.

The latest sparring began over the summer when Trump reached back to a Great Depression law to impose 50% tariffs on about $20 billion worth of Canadian imports, charging that Canada discriminates against US dairy and auto producers. Canada promptly counterpunched with tariffs of 15% and 25%, matching US imports dollar for dollar.

To punish Canada for retaliating against his tariffs, Trump decided to ban a list of Canadian products, effective 12:01 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday.

The economic impact is likely to be minimal. Childress noted that the products on the banned list were already facing Trump’s tariffs. “For a lot of these goods, the 50% was already acting as a de facto ban by making importation from Canada into the United States uneconomical,″ he said.

Jacob Jensen, director of trade policy at the center-right American Action Forum think tank, calculates that the ban would cover $967 million worth of Canadian imports, based on 2025 numbers.

“This marks yet another escalation in the trade war that may result in further retaliation on the Canadian side,” Jensen said. He expects Canadian exporters and US importers “impacted by these bans will be highly motivated’’ to demand that trade officials on both sides find some way to reach a “resolution of this whole ordeal.’’

Business

Birol: IEA Member States Will Discuss Strategic Oil Reserve Releases if Needed

This photograph shows the entrance to the International Energy Agency (IEA) headquarters in Paris on March 11, 2026. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
This photograph shows the entrance to the International Energy Agency (IEA) headquarters in Paris on March 11, 2026. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
TT
TT

Birol: IEA Member States Will Discuss Strategic Oil Reserve Releases if Needed

This photograph shows the entrance to the International Energy Agency (IEA) headquarters in Paris on March 11, 2026. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
This photograph shows the entrance to the International Energy Agency (IEA) headquarters in Paris on March 11, 2026. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

The International Energy Agency's member states may discuss whether more strategic oil reserves could be released on the market in the future, IEA head Fatih Birol said on Tuesday.

"We are ⁠following the markets ⁠very closely, especially the product markets, diesel and others. If there is a need, ⁠of course, we will discuss with our member governments to take the necessary steps," he told reporters in Dublin ahead of a meeting of EU energy ministers.

Birol declined to ⁠comment ⁠on proposals hinted at by French President Emmanuel Macron and others to release more strategic reserves in a bid to lower oil prices.

Business

Saudi-Egypt Electricity Interconnection Nears Operation

Egyptian Electricity Minister Mahmoud Esmat during a seminar at the National Press Authority on Sunday evening (Electricity Ministry’s Facebook page)
Egyptian Electricity Minister Mahmoud Esmat during a seminar at the National Press Authority on Sunday evening (Electricity Ministry’s Facebook page)
TT
TT

Saudi-Egypt Electricity Interconnection Nears Operation

Egyptian Electricity Minister Mahmoud Esmat during a seminar at the National Press Authority on Sunday evening (Electricity Ministry’s Facebook page)
Egyptian Electricity Minister Mahmoud Esmat during a seminar at the National Press Authority on Sunday evening (Electricity Ministry’s Facebook page)

The Saudi-Egypt electricity interconnection, one of the region’s largest and most ambitious energy projects, is nearing actual operation after an official Egyptian announcement that work on the Egyptian side has been completed and the project has entered trial operations.

The strategic project, with investments of about $1.8 billion and an exchange capacity of up to 3,000 megawatts, is not only a step toward improving the efficiency of the two countries’ national grids, but also represents a pivotal shift in the regional and international energy landscape.

By connecting the two largest electricity grids in the Arab world, the project lays the initial foundation for a common Arab electricity market and reinforces the two countries’ positions as key hubs for energy trading and transmission between Asia, Africa and Europe.

Egyptian Side Ready

Egyptian Electricity and Renewable Energy Minister Mahmoud Esmat said on Sunday that the project aims to exchange 3,000 MW of electricity along a 1,320-kilometer route.

He noted that the pace of implementation and progress accelerated between July 2024 and June 2025, bringing the project to the trial-operation stage.

Esmat confirmed that all engineering and construction work on the Egyptian side of the interconnection with Saudi Arabia had been completed, with only a small portion of work, technical testing and final preparations remaining on the Saudi side.

Work in Egypt included construction of the 500-kilovolt Badr converter station and the 320-kilometer Badr-Taba overhead line, as well as giant Suez Canal crossing towers rising more than 220 meters to ensure the smooth and safe transmission of electricity ahead of the start of actual exchanges between the two countries.

Esmat said during a Feb. 15 meeting with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi that the interconnection would play an important role in stabilizing Egypt’s national electricity grid during the summer, when consumption peaks.

Technical Specifications

According to official Egyptian information, the project is one of the region’s largest electricity interconnection projects, with investments estimated at about $1.8 billion and an exchange capacity of up to 3,000 MW.

It consists of three major high-voltage converter stations: one east of Madinah and another in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, and a third in Badr, east of Cairo.

The stations are connected by overhead lines extending about 1,350 kilometers, in addition to submarine cables crossing the Gulf of Aqaba.

Strategic Shift in Regional Energy Security

Khaled El-Shafei, an economist and head of the Capital Center for Economic Studies, said the interconnection represents a strategic shift in the region’s energy landscape and security.

He noted that the project strengthens energy security in both countries with a capacity of up to 3,000 MW through high-voltage direct-current lines extending 1,320 kilometers, equivalent to about 8 to 10 percent of Egypt’s total operating reserve capacity.

El-Shafei underlined that this would support the stability of the national grid without the need to operate additional generating plants with high operating costs. It would also reduce carbon emissions by millions of tons annually through optimal use of the two countries’ renewable-energy mix.

He continued that once the interconnection becomes fully operational, it would generate substantial economic savings in fossil-fuel consumption and power-plant maintenance costs.

Gateway to Europe

Esmat also discussed existing electricity interconnection projects with neighboring countries, including Sudan, Libya and Jordan, saying studies for interconnection projects with Greece and Italy are currently being finalized, which would make Egypt a bridge to Europe, according to a ministry statement.

On the regional level, El-Shafei said the Saudi-Egypt project’s entry into the operational phase is the essence for establishing a common Arab electricity market, as it connects the two largest electricity grids in the Arab region, which together account for more than 60 percent of total electricity generated in the Arab world.

The development also opens broad prospects for Egypt to capitalize on its unique geographical position as a key regional energy-trading hub. It would allow the Egyptian grid to manage a multilateral interconnection system extending to the Arab east through Saudi Arabia and Jordan, the Maghreb through Libya, and Africa through the existing interconnection with Sudan.

Egypt would also serve as a future gateway to Europe through interconnection projects being studied and implemented with Greece, Cyprus and Italy to transmit up to 2,000 MW, boosting direct economic returns and making the region a key pillar for regional and international energy stability and sustainability.