Iranian oil tankers flee crude loading site amid fears of Israeli attack
US President Joe Biden was asked Thursday whether he would support Israel attacking Iranian oil infrastructure, and in off-the-cuff remarks, he said his administration was “discussing” it.
Oil tankers waiting close to Iran’s biggest crude loading facility have left the area empty-handed since Tehran fired 181 ballistic missiles at Israel on Monday, amid vows from Israel to respond.
There has been speculation that Israel may respond to Iran in the coming days by attacking its oil assets, in retaliation for the Iranian missile salvo that Tehran said was in response to Israel’s "aggressive acts," including the assassination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah last week alongside a senior figure in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The highly choreographed attack caused no casualties in Israel, apart from two injuries in Tel Aviv. A 38-year-old Palestinian man was killed in Jericho in the occupied West Bank, the city's mayor said.
US President Joe Biden was asked Thursday whether he would support Israel attacking Iranian oil infrastructure. In off-the-cuff remarks, Biden said that his administration was “discussing” it.
TankerTrackers.com Inc., a tracking firm that monitors ships using satellite data, wrote on X on Thursday that some Iranian tankers had moved away from the country’s biggest crude loading facility.
“The National Iranian Tanker Company appears to be fearing an imminent attack by Israel. Their empty VLCC supertankers vacated the country’s largest oil terminal, Kharg Island, yesterday,” TankerTrackers.com wrote.
“Please note that crude oil loadings continue, but all of the extra vacant shipping capacity has been removed from the anchorage of Kharg Island. This is the first time we see anything like this since the 2018 sanctions round,” the company added.
TankerTrackers.com added in a Friday post that the White House would not benefit from seeing Iran’s oil production or even exports being targeted, with the US elections being only 31 days away.
The Bloomberg newswire also examined Sentinel images showing the vessels moving away from the oil facility. It compared images from Saturday, which showed at least nine tankers anchored to the south and east of Kharg Island. An image from Wednesday shows only one vessel, with a wake behind the ship suggesting it was heading to the loading jetty. The images show that the ships have since dispersed throughout the Persian Gulf.
Since 1979, following the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran, Iran has been under sanctions. However, the country has found ways to continue producing large quantities of crude oil, with an output of 3.3 million barrels per day in September, according to a Bloomberg survey. Iran exports around 1.7 million barrels per day, mainly to China. Iran’s economy relies heavily on crude export revenues, making up around 80% of the country’s earnings and 50% to 60% of its government revenue, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Oil prices have climbed since Tuesday amid fears of an Israeli attack on Iran’s oil infrastructure. On Friday morning Eastern Time, international benchmark Brent Crude stood around $78.10 per barrel. In the early morning of Oct. 1, just before Iran’s attack, it was around $70 per barrel. So far, oil prices have been negligibly impacted by much of the political instability in the Middle East, as global demand for crude has been low and concerns persist about a supply glut in early 2025.
Biden has said that the US and Western G7 allies believe Israel should respond “proportionally” and should not target Iran’s nuclear program.
