National Iranian Tanker Company resumes supertanker loadings at Kharg Island after weeks-long gap

A supertanker operated by the National Iranian Tanker Company loaded approximately two million barrels of crude oil at Kharg Island, marking the first such loading since operations ground to a halt in late July. The resumption at Iran’s most critical oil export hub, which handles roughly 90% of the country’s crude shipments, is the kind of development that ripples through global energy markets whether or not it leads to sustained volumes. The loading comes after the US reinstated a naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz on July 14, a move that effectively emptied Kharg Island’s three main loading berths for nearly a month. What happened at Kharg Island Kharg Island sits roughly 25 kilometers off Iran’s southern coast in the Persian Gulf. When it goes quiet, it signals that either enforcement pressure or logistics have made shipping untenable. The July blockade wasn’t Iran’s first brush with this kind of disruption. Earlier enforcement actions in May and June had already caused operational halts, creating a pattern of stop-and-start export activity that has made Iranian crude flows deeply unpredictable. Now a VLCC-class vessel, the largest category of crude carrier on the water, has...