Reuters reports significant drop in oil sales from Iran and Russia and increase in unsold oil reserves
Following the sanctioning of dozens of oil tankers carrying Iranian and Russian oil in recent months, Reuters has reported a significant surge in unsold oil reserves on the water for these two countries.
Reuters, citing data from the commodity intelligence company Kpler, has reported that since the beginning of this year, 10 to 20 million barrels have been added to Iran’s oil reserves on the water.
According to Kpler’s estimates, 80% of Iran’s oil reserves are stored in tankers anchored in the waters of Singapore and Malaysia.
Richard Bruns, head of geopolitical affairs at the consultancy Energy Aspects, also mentioned the continuation of oil smuggling tactics such as disabling and falsifying automatic identification system messages of tankers and conducting ship-to-ship transfers of oil cargoes by these two countries.
Since October last year, when Iran carried out a second large-scale missile attack on Israeli soil, the United States has sanctioned over 50 tankers carrying Iranian and Russian oil, causing disruptions in the transfer of Iranian oil.