Iran Denies Reports on Its Oil Stacking Up at Sea

An Iranian Oil Ministry source has denied reports suggesting that the country is grappling with an increasing stock of crude oil held afloat.

The ILNA news agency quoted the source as saying on Saturday that Iran had sold all of its stock of crude oil held on tankers in regional or international waters.

The source, which ILNA said had direct knowledge of the matter, said that recent data published by two tanker tracking services, namely Kpler and Vortexa, suggesting that Iran had up to 120 million barrels of crude oil on tankers at sea that it has not been able to sell, was incorrect.

“It is not possible to provide statistics about oil sales and export destinations. However, we definitely have no unsold oil at sea,” said the source while referring to Iran’s policy of keeping oil export information confidential due to US sanctions.

The source also said that the fact that Iran’s oil exports had increased by 0.12 million barrels per day (bpd) in the four months to late July is a clear sign that the country has no floating oil storage that it is unable to sell.

The official said, however, that the build-up of stocks offshore, which has been cited by Kpler and Vortexa as a sign of Iran’s declining oil exports, may have been due to the fact that customers have delayed unloading tankers carrying Iranian oil.

Iran uses a complicated network of tankers and brokers to avoid US sanctions and be able to export its oil.

The country has hit records of 1.8 million bpd of oil exports in recent months, with a bulk of the shipments delivered to private buyers in China. - Press TV