🔻The Wall Street Journal says in a report that «Iran’s oil dollars are drying up»

🔻The Wall Street Journal says in a report that «Iran’s oil dollars are drying up»

The Wall Street Journal, in a report, has written that the US maritime blockade is gradually eliminating Iran’s most important source of foreign-currency income. Based on data from the company Kpler, since the maritime blockade was reinstated in mid-July, no fresh shipment of Iranian crude oil has been able to pass through the blockade.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Iran’s oil reserves on tankers outside the blockade zone—which were mainly intended for Chinese customers—have dropped from about 90 million barrels in mid-July to 29 million barrels. If daily deliveries of nearly one million barrels continue, these reserves are likely to be fully depleted by mid-October, and payments for prior shipments may also be halted by mid-December.

Based on this report, in August Iran loaded about 255,000 barrels of oil per day; a figure that is 85% lower than the average of the months from February to April. The Wall Street Journal writes that land transport is also not an effective substitute, because the export capacity by truck and rail is likely not to exceed 40,000 barrels per day; whereas Iran’s oil exports before the war were close to nearly two million barrels per day.

On the other hand, exports of petrochemical products, Iran’s second major source of foreign-currency income, have also fallen by about two-thirds.

According to this report, the financial pressure resulting from the blockade has come alongside inflation of more than 80%, the decline in the value of the rial, and the International Monetary Fund’s forecast of a 4.5% contraction in Iran’s economy.