Iran Tankers Seen Too Few to Sustain Oil Flow Amid Sanctions

Oil exports from Iran, OPEC’s second-biggest producer, may drop because the nation’s tanker fleet is too small to carry all its cargoes as European Union sanctions cause international ship owners to avoid the country.

NITC owns 39 vessels able to carry about 70 million barrels of crude, according to its website. The fleet would be insufficient to deliver the nation’s monthly exports of about 65 million barrels because journey durations can be as long as two months, said Dag Kilen, an analyst at Fearnley Consultants A/S, a unit of Norway’s second-largest shipbroker. Sanctions already cut shipments by 300,000 to 400,000 barrels a day, Barclays Capital said March 7.