Iranian oil sales uninterrupted despite US airstrike on Kharg Island
Crude oil exports from Kharg Island are going on, an Iranian official said on Saturday, hours after a US airstrike targeted the Iranian island in the Persian Gulf, which serves as the main hub for country oil sales.
“Iranian oil companies at the Kharg export terminal are operating as usual despite the brutal attack,” Ehsan Jahaniyan, the political, security, and social deputy governor of Bushehr province told IRNA.
Jahaniyan added that the overnight assault caused no casualties among military personnel, workers at the companies, or residents of Kharg Island, and that daily life and activities of the people on island, which is part of Bushehr province in southern Iran, were “in complete order.”
US President Donald Trump said that the United States had launched an airstrike on Kharg’s military sites, claiming that the US Central Command had “obliterated every military target in Iran’s crown jewel” at his direction.
“For reasons of decency, I have chosen not to wipe out the oil infrastructure on the island,” Trump wrote on the social media platform Truth Social.
Trump also threatened to “immediately reconsider this decision” should Iran, or anyone else, “do anything to interfere with” the free and safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.
Fars News Agency, citing its sources, reported that “more than 15 explosions” were heard on the island.
“The enemy attempted to damage the Army’s air defense, the Navy’s Jowshan base, an airport control tower, and a helicopter hangar during the strike,” Fars said.
The Central Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters – Iran’s war room – warned shortly afterward that in the event of an attack on Iran’s economic, and energy infrastructure, all such facilities belonging to oil companies across the region with American stakes or collaborating with the US would “be destroyed and reduced to ashes immediately.”
Since the US-Israeli aggression on Iran on February 28, Iranian Armed Forces have blocked the transit of tankers and ships through the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, a waterway via which 20% of the world’s oil passes.
The move has pushed oil prices above $100 per barrel and left scores of vessels stranded on either side of the conduit.
Iranian forces have targeted at least 15 vessels for ignoring warnings about the waterway’s closure and only allowed ships belonging to “non-hostile countries” to sail through.
Iran’s new Leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, on Thursday urged the Armed Forces to keep the strait closed as a leverage tool.
Kharg, a coral island with an area of 20 square kilometers, is located 25 km off Iran’s coast and has significant economic importance as it hosts the country’s main oil export terminal. Around 90% of Iran’s crude exports are conducted through Kharg, where the country’s largest oil storage tanks are located and connected to its largest oilfields.
Speculation is rife about the potential capture of the island by the US following the attack.
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf warned on Thursday that the Islamic Republic would “abandon all restraint and make the Persian Gulf run with the blood of invaders” if any of its islands came under attack.