Oil exports continue uninterrupted from Kharg after US strike, senior MP says
Iran reiterated that its crude oil exports from Kharg Island are continuing, three days after a US airstrike targeted the Iranian island in the Persian Gulf, which serves as the main hub for the country's oil sales.
Esmaeil Hosseini, spokesman for the parliament's Energy Commission, said on Monday during a visit to the island that no interruption has occurred in oil exports, ISNA reported.
Members of the Energy Commission traveled to Kharg Island for a one-day visit, touring energy companies, the Kharg petrochemical plant, the Kharg oil export terminal, and the oil hospital. They met with oil industry personnel to hear their concerns and demands.
"Life for the residents of Kharg Island is proceeding as normal," Hosseini said, elaborating on the details of the trip. "Oil industry personnel are working with high morale and are engaged in activity; with around-the-clock efforts, absolutely no interruption has occurred in oil exports."
Hours after the US attack on Saturday, Ehsan Jahaniyan, the political, security, and social deputy governor of Bushehr Province, told IRNA that Iranian oil companies at the Kharg export terminal were operating as usual despite the brutal attack. 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.
US President Donald Trump said on Saturday 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.
Despite attacks, exports generate $140m daily
The Financial Times has reported that at least 13 supertankers have loaded oil at Kharg since the beginning of the war on February 28, noting that Iran is earning $140 million in daily revenue under the shadow of conflict.
According to ISNA, the newspaper wrote that based on data from analysts monitoring Iranian oil exports via satellite imagery, at least 13 supertankers have loaded oil at Iran's main export terminal on Kharg Island since the start of the attacks by the US and Israel.
The report added that approximately 24 million barrels of Iranian oil have transited the Strait of Hormuz during this period. According to estimates by energy data companies, Iran has been loading about 1.5 million to 1.6 million barrels of oil per day onto tankers since the war began. This volume of exports generates about $140 million in daily revenue.