Iran struggling to stay afloat against US economic pressures, blockade

Iran is increasingly struggling to withstand the full force of America’s naval blockade and economic sanctions pummeling its already battered economy, senior Iranian officials said.With Tehran’s oil exports falling to new lows for seven weeks straight, a historic first, the regime is facing a new reality that it may have to blink first in the battle of economic pressure with the US, three senior Iranian sources told Reuters.

The situation has grown even more dire after the US unleashed a new wave of sanctions and threatened to go after anyone who assists Iran, leaving the regime with fewer resources to secure foreign currency or buy goods, the sources added.While Iran managed to ship 2 million barrels of oil per day during the height of the war in March, the regime has only managed to load an average of about 250,000 bpd in August, maritime analysts Vortexa and Kpler estimated.

The severe drop demonstrates that the renewed American blockade has locked Iran out of its main source of revenue that had previously managed to bypass western sanctions.“Even at the height of maximum-pressure sanctions in ⁠2019-20, some Iranian crude cleared Hormuz every single month; at no point did outbound flows fall to near-zero for a sustained stretch as they have ​since mid-July,” Vortexa analyst Claire Jungman said.The US Navy has intercepted 86 commercial ships so far from entering or leaving Iranian ports, with three ships disabled and two boarded by troops, according to Central Command.

Iranian officials claim they still have tens of millions of barrels of oil stored in tankers outside the blockade zone that it can sell, but that itself comes with a problem.The drop in oil revenue, combined with high inflation and the plummeting value of Iran’s rial currency, has left the regime with less cash on hand to pay the high premiums it requires to actually skirt the sanctions, the Iranian sources added.

Iran is believed to have a total of 107 million barrels of oil aflo...