Data from international tanker-tracking firms reveals that Iran's oil exports and deliveries to China dropped to their lowest level in 17 months last month, a trend that has unfolded concurrently with the intensification of US naval pressure and declining demand from Chinese refineries.
According to this data, daily deliveries of Iranian oil to China fell to approximately 1.1 million barrels last month. Furthermore, oil loading from Iranian ports has plummeted to around 300,000 barrels per day since the start of the US naval blockade on the Islamic Republic, while oil exports to foreign markets are estimated to be between 120,000 and 260,000 barrels per day.
This comes even though Iran's oil exports averaged around 1.6 million barrels per day last year and had even neared the threshold of 2 million barrels per day during the initial months of the current year.
The sharp decline in exports has forced the Islamic Republic to rely more heavily than before on its floating oil reserves in Asian waters to sustain supply to its Chinese customers. Estimates from energy-tracking firm Kpler indicate that the volume of Iranian oil stored on tankers in East Asia has dropped from roughly 130 million barrels to 79 million barrels.
