The US blockade on Iran cost Tehran $4.8 billion

Recent estimates by the US Department of Defense (Pentagon) revealed that the military blockade imposed by Washington in the Gulf of Oman has caused Tehran losses amounting to about $4.8 billion in oil revenues, which imposes unprecedented pressure on the Iranian government. A report published by the American website Axios explained that the blockade is the most prominent pressure tool for US President Donald Trump in his efforts to negotiate and end the conflict with Iran. As part of this blockade, which began on April 13, the US military intercepted and redirected more than 40 ships attempting to smuggle oil and other materials.

Pentagon data reported that 31 Iranian oil tankers carrying 53 million barrels, valued at $4.8 billion, are still “stranded in the Gulf,” while American forces were able to confiscate two ships. With Iranian land storage facilities reaching their maximum capacity, Tehran was forced to resort to dilapidated tankers and use them as floating oil stores, while other tankers resorted to taking longer and more expensive sea routes towards China to avoid American naval interception.

In a related context, experts in tracking maritime traffic warned of the possibility of Iran carrying out a “mass escape” of its detained tankers. Samir Madani, co-founder of the Tanker Trackers website, pointed out that Tehran may take advantage of the opportunity to build additional storage spaces near the Pakistani border to carry out this escape, citing the path of a giant Iranian tanker that traveled along the coasts of India and Pakistan, reaching the Strait of Malacca in Malaysia to avoid arrest.

The current American strategy, which comes in response to Iran’s siege of the Strait of Hormuz, seeks to push Tehran towards exhausting all of its oil storage capabilities, which will ultimately force it to close its oil wells. Analysts expected that Iran would reach this critical stage within a few weeks or a month at the latest.

For his part, the Acting Press Secretary of the Pentagon, Joel Valdez, confirmed that the blockade is successfully achieving its goals, stressing that the American forces are dealing “a devastating blow to the Iranian regime’s options to finance destabilization of the region,” and stressing the continuation of this “unrelenting pressure.”