Iran is seeing bumper oil exports. But that doesn’t mean production is on a similar trend.
OPEC’s third-largest producer ramped up exports in April to the highest since sanctions were eased more than two years ago. The jump came just weeks before a U.S. decision on whether to pull out of the global deal that relaxed the restrictions, a move that would likely force Iran to cut hundreds of thousands of barrels a day.
Crude shipments climbed to 2.48 million barrels a day last month from 2.06 million a day in March, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. That coincided with a 4 million-barrel drawdown from tankers storing oil at sea, tanker tracking showed.
“Iran managed a sizable month-on-month gain in exports, largely driven by the release of floating storage,” cargo-tracking company Kpler said in a note.