Anticipating a possible imminent resumption of the U.S. Navy blockade, Tehran shipped out no less than 10 million barrels of crude oil and fuel oil overnight, according to tracking data from specialized maritime monitor TankerTrackers.com.

The sudden, massive surge in nocturnal shipping activity comes as market analysts and Iranian officials brace for an aggressive tightening of U.S. maritime enforcement in the Persian Gulf.

Defensive Shipping Strategies

Iranian state media and official agencies cited independent tracking logs to confirm the scale of the ongoing operations, which rely on fleets of supertankers rapidly clearing Iranian ports under cover of night.

According to energy analysts, this nightly spike in maritime activity serves as a preemptive maneuver by Tehran, driven by expectations that Washington will aggressively clamp down on shipping corridors in the Persian Gulf following the formal revocation of General License X, the temporary 60-day waiver that briefly permitted open sales. While TankerTrackers.com confirmed that at least 10 million barrels are clearing domestic terminals nightly, tracking data has not yet specified the final destination ports or the buyers of the sudden shipments.

The Iranian Ministry of Energy notes that the country’s standard domestic production stands at roughly 3 million barrels per day. Maintaining a nightly export volume that exceeds 10 million barrels indicates that Tehran is systematically drawing down its floating and onshore strategic stockpiles to lock in energy revenue before predicted naval restrictions lock down the region.

Diplomatic Friction Over the MoU

The surge in nocturnal tanker traffic follows a major escalation in regional tensions that has severely strained the recent bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Washington and Tehran.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the head of the Iranian negotiating team and Speaker of the Parliament, publicly accused Washington of major violations of the accord, explicitly warning that the U.S. position points directly toward a full reinstatement of the previous oil embargo. With independent analysts predicting that an active U.S. naval blockade targeting Iranian ports could resume at any moment, the nightly export surge underscores Tehran's strategy to clear out its oil inventory while the maritime corridors remain navigable.