File image.
President Donald Trump claimed on April 28 that Iran informed the United States that it is in a state of collapse and wants to open the Strait of Hormuz.
“They want us to open the Hormuz Strait as soon as possible, as they try to figure out their leadership situation (Which I believe they will be able to do!),” Trump added in a Truth Social post, without elaborating.
The remarks came amid a stalemate in diplomatic efforts led by Pakistan to arrange a second round of American-Iranian talks.
Just a day earlier, Trump warned that Iran’s oil pipelines may explode in about three days due to the U.S. blockade on the Islamic Republic’s ports, which is preventing exports.
“When you have, you know, lines of vast amounts of oil pouring through your system, if for any reason that line is closed because you can’t continue to put it into containers or ships — which has happened to them; they have no ships because of the blockade — what happens is that line explodes from within,” Trump told Fox News.
“And they say they only have about three days left before that happens,” he added, noting that Iran may lose half of its oil production capacity.
Multiple reports citing commodity analytics firm Kpler said that Iran is resorting to improvised oil storage and alternative export routes due to the blockade — imposed by Trump amid the ceasefire in response to the Islamic Republic restrictions on navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran is reportedly reviving disused “junk storage” sites, using makeshift containers and exploring crude shipments by rail to China, in an effort to delay a wider infrastructure crisis and avoid a sharper shutdown in production.
According to Kpler data cited by The New York Times, exports dropped dramatically after the blockade took hold in mid-April. While shipments averaged just over two million barrels per day in early April, activity slowed sharply in the following days, with only five cargoes tracked and volumes falling to roughly 567,000 barrels exported per day.
The Islamic Republic is running out of storage space, per Kpler, which estimates remaining capacity could be exhausted within 12 to 22 days — much more than what was estimated by Trump. That raises the prospect of further output reductions of up to 1.5 million barrels per day, if the blockade continues.
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs estimated last week that Iran has already cut as much as 2.5 million barrels per day of crude production.
Despite the export collapse, Kpler said that Iran may not feel the full revenue hit for another three to four months, and mainly because of delays in payment flows and existing sales.
While the U.S. blockade is clearly having an impact on Iran, Trump is clearly exaggerating in an attempt to pressure the Islamic Republic. If the blockade drags on, the effect will not be limited to Iran. It will impact the entire global energy market, including fuel prices in the U.S. itself.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence
NOW hosted at southfront.press
Previously, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.org.
The .org domain name had been blocked by the US (NATO) (https://southfront.press/southfront-org-blocked-by-u-s-controlled-global-internet-supervisor/) globally, outlawed and without any explanation
Back before that, from 2013 to 2015, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.com
nice propaganda from murica. only a fool like dumpstein kicks off a war by murdering 168 school children.
the psychosis “trump has said”
the only thing that has failed is trump’s own mind. syphilis is an awful std. we can only hope that on may 1st article i of the u.s. constitution takes the country and the world in a different direction by stopping the war with iran and denies 0range caligula another 60 days.
breaking news: trump sat down for a dump! :)
the oil by rail to china line was interesting, probably be enough to keep import aspects of the economy going.
we’ve just killed mortally wounded the opec mutts. now we will mostly depopulate the arabitchpeninsula and iran will help us. hehehe.