Due to the heavy drop in exports, Iran has been forced to store millions of barrels of oil on land and at sea.

According to a report by Reuters, since there are not enough customers for Iran’s oil, millions of barrels of oil have been stored in ports or on oil tankers.

Data shows that Iran only has the capacity to store 73 million barrels in its ports, which has already used up to 46 million barrels. It is estimated that 20 million barrels of oil are being stored on oil tankers in ports.

Based on a report by Reuters, since the beginning of May, Iran’s oil export has dropped to less than 500 thousand barrels a day. During this time Iran has only been able to export between 250 to 500 thousand barrels a day and even some of this amount has not been sold and had to be stored.

Before the U.S sanction in November of 2018, Iran was selling almost 2.5 million barrels of oil a day. After the JCPOA (Iran nuclear deal) in 2015, Iran’s oil export increased significantly. In May of 2018, Iran on average sold 2.9 million barrels of oil.

A large part of Iran’s stored oil, over 20 million barrels, has been stored in China.