Bloomberg: Iran's Oil Export Has Dropped to Zero
According to Bloomberg, in the first weeks of May 2019, no oil tankers have left Iranian ports to export oil, and according to the available data, Iran’s export of oil and liquid gases has dropped to zero.
The United States recently announced that it will not extend the sanction waivers for the customers of Iranian oil. The waivers expired on May 2.
Previously, eight countries including China, Japan, Turkey, and South Korea were allowed to buy oil from Iran up to the maximum sum of 1 million barrels a day.
According to Bloomberg, since April, China, South Korea, and Japan have significantly reduced their oil import from Iran. Usually, it takes a month for Iranian oil to reach east Asian ports from the Persian Gulf, therefore the oil that they bought in April would not reach them until the expiration of sanction waivers.
But India bought 400 thousand barrels a day from Iran because their oil would reach them faster.
However, since the beginning of May, Iranian tankers have not left their export terminals.
At the same time, CNBC reported that an Iranian tanker carrying one million barrels of oil has just reached a Syrian port. According to Bloomberg, some Iranian tankers are still on their way to deliver their last cargo or they are on their way back to the Persian Gulf.
The United States had announced that its goal is to reduce Iran’s oil export to zero so that the regime would not have any more funds to support militia groups in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and Syria, and Iran would stop its nuclear program and come to the negotiation table with President Trump.