Iran's oil exports to China topped 1.8 million barrels per day in October, according to data intelligence firm Kpler.
Kpler announced on Friday a record daily exports of more than 1.8 million barrels of Iranian oil to China this month.
In October, Iran was the largest exporter of oil to China, after Russia, as the country surpassed Saudi Arabia by a significant margin. This jump in exports is mainly due to the huge volume of oil reserves in Iran’s floating storage.
Earlier, Kpler had announced in a report that Iran’s floating storage has become zero, while at the beginning of the incumbent government in 2021, about 60 million barrels of Iranian oil remained floating on sea storages, with no customers.
According to the released statistics, the average daily exports of Iranian oil to China during the first 10 months of the current Iranian year was 1.235 mbd, which is 84% more than the figure for the same period last year.
However, the historical record-breaking of Iran’s oil exports has been accompanied by different reactions among domestic and foreign journalists and experts.
Homayoun Falakshahi, a senior crude oil analyst at Kpler, wrote on his X page: “Iran has overtaken Saudi Arabia as China’s top seaborne oil supplier in October (Russia remains first when including piped flows), thanks to a massive destocking of crude from floating storage. Arrivals of Iranian crude have averaged >1.8 mbd mtd, a new record - data from @Kpler”.
Javier Blas, energy and commodities columnist at Bloomberg also wrote on his X page: “Not only is Iran boosting its production, but it has all but liquidated its massive holding of floating oil storage. Either the White House allowed it, or it is unable to stop it; either way, the sanctions regime has crumbled.”