Pipelines from Iran’s largest oil fields including Ahvaz, Marun and Gachsaran feed directly into Kharg’s storage tanks before the crude is loaded onto tankers bound for international markets.
Even as war disrupts shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and crude prices surge worldwide, a small island off Iran’s coast is quietly keeping the country’s oil flowing, with tankers now slipping out toward markets such as India.
That island is Kharg, a narrow strip of land about 30 kilometers off Iran’s Gulf coast that processes the vast majority of the country’s crude exports. Despite the widening U.S. Israeli military campaign against Tehran, satellite tracking suggests oil is still leaving the terminal and moving through one of the most dangerous shipping lanes in the world.
Ten days into Operation Epic Fury, which has forced shut ins at several Gulf energy facilities and rattled commercial shipping, new geospatial intelligence indicates that Iran has continued to push significant volumes through the Strait of Hormuz.
Data from tanker monitoring firm TankerTrackers, first cited by Bloomberg, shows Iran linked tanker flows through the strait exceeding nearly 12 million barrels since February 28, the day the operation began. The data says the figure could be considerably higher because much of Iran’s export network relies on vessels that deliberately disappear from standard tracking systems.
The shipments are moving through a corridor that has become the focal point of the global energy crisis. The Strait of Hormuz carries roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply, and fears of disruption have already pushed Brent crude toward 119 dollars a barrel in overnight trading.
But despite the tension and military activity in the region, Iranian crude appears to be slipping through the system.
A large portion of that traffic belongs to the so called dark fleet, tankers that switch off their tracking transponders to avoid detection.
One of those vessels recently resurfaced.
TankerTrackers reported that a Suezmax tanker that went dark while crossing the Strait of Hormuz switched its transponder back on and is now sailing toward India, highlighting how Iranian barrels may still be reaching buyers in Asia even as the conflict intensifies. NDTV could not independently verify whether the tanker is in fact headed to Mumbai, despite what the available data suggests
The continuing exports point directly back to Kharg Island.
Between 80 percent and 90 percent of Iran’s crude exports are loaded at the terminal, making the island one of the most strategically important oil facilities in the Middle East and a central financial lifeline for Tehran.
Because of that role, Kharg has suddenly moved to the center of geopolitical calculations.
According to a report by Axios earlier this month, U.S. officials have discussed the possibility of seizing the island, a move that could effectively shut down most Iranian oil exports overnight.
Analysts at JPMorgan say the impact would be immediate. Capturing or disabling the terminal would halt the bulk of Iran’s crude shipments and could cut the country’s oil production roughly in half. The bank warned that such a move would likely trigger retaliation from Tehran, potentially targeting shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz or energy infrastructure across the region.
Iran currently produces about 3.3 million barrels of crude per day, along with another 1.3 million barrels of condensate and other liquids, representing roughly 4.5 percent of global supply.
Pipelines from Iran’s largest oil fields including Ahvaz, Marun and Gachsaran feed directly into Kharg’s storage tanks before the crude is loaded onto tankers bound for international markets.
The island can store around 30 million barrels of crude, and shipping analytics firm Kpler estimates that roughly 18 million barrels are currently sitting in storage, equivalent to about ten to twelve days of exports under normal conditions.
In the days before Operation Epic Fury began, Iran appeared to anticipate the coming disruption.
Exports from Kharg surged to more than 3 million barrels per day between February 15 and February 20, nearly triple the country’s typical export pace.
That surge now looks like a rush to move oil before the war began.
