Iran’s oil exports rose in August, although they did not maintain the pace set in the first part of the month.
The rise in Iranian shipments to a record high this year comes the same month that top OPEC+ producers Saudi Arabia and Russia kept a cap on their own oil exports in a bid to tighten the market.
Iranian crude and condensate shipments rose to 1.85 million barrels per day in August, according to TankerTrackers.com Inc., which provides oil cargo data to governments, insurers and other institutions.
That represents a pullback from the first 20 days of August, when exports topped 2 million barrels a day. The previous period’s figures were likely inflated by sales of stored barrels, according to TankerTrackers co-founder Samir Madani.
Iran has steadily increased its oil shipments this year, finding buyers for its discounted supplies in Asia. The country’s output is now at its highest level since the ban on its exports began five years ago, and US officials have privately acknowledged that they have gradually eased some of the measures.
The latest figures cover the first 30 days of August. TankerTrackers studies satellite imagery and collects the data manually, meaning it does not rely on Automatic Identification System or AIS signals.
