Iran restarted crude loadings at Kharg Island over the weekend, ending a roughly six week halt that followed the US Navy blockade of its main export ports. Three very large crude carriers, each able to lift about 2 million barrels, are moored at the Sea Island terminal west of Kharg, according to ship tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.
Sentinel 2 satellite imagery captured Saturday shows two of the vessels berthed and a third approaching the jetty, while a Sentinel 1 pass the day before showed the berths empty. The three tankers, named as Stream, Impalas and Lauren II, were observed crossing the Strait of Hormuz into the Gulf on Thursday before heading to the island.
Kharg handles around 90% of Iran's crude shipments, and the resumption follows an interim peace deal with Washington that has eased restrictions on Iranian exports. Tehran has already moved roughly 20 million barrels in recent days using tankers that had been anchored off Chabahar near the Pakistan border, well outside the Persian Gulf.
Further movement is now under way inside the Gulf itself. Several VLCCs that had been holding off Kharg are heading toward Lavan Island in the southern Gulf, and at least 20 tankers of various sizes remain anchored east of Kharg with cargo ready to lift. International owners with ships inside the Gulf have still been cautious about transiting Hormuz given lingering safety questions.
For owners, charterers and refiners, the reopening signals a return of Iranian barrels to the seaborne market at a scale not seen since the spring blockade, with implications for VLCC demand, freight rates on the Middle East Gulf to Asia route, and the supply balance that Brent has been pricing through the second quarter.