Misbar Detects Signs of Iranian Oil Tanks Drained on Kharg Island

According to reports published by Axios, sources familiar with the Trump administration say the U.S. is considering a plan to occupy Iran’s Kharg Island. Meanwhile, indicators suggest that Iran is actively draining its oil reserves on the island, which handles 90% of the country’s oil exports.

On March 20, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besent announced a temporary 30-day exemption for Iranian oil from sanctions, aiming to ease pressure on energy supplies amid disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz since the outbreak of the war.

Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum responded that the country currently has no crude oil stored at sea and no surplus for export, framing the U.S. statement as an attempt to reassure global markets and stabilize oil prices, which touched $120 per barrel in March.

These statements align with analysis by Misbar’s team, which observed what appears to be intensive operations to drain Iran’s primary oil reserves on Kharg Island, ongoing for several months.

Draining of Oil Tanks on Kharg Island

Kharg Island, located about 25 kilometers off Iran’s northern coast in the Persian Gulf, contains roughly 55 oil tanks of varying sizes, with a total capacity of around 30 million barrels of crude oil.

The tanks use an External Floating Roof (EFR) system, in which the roof rests directly on the oil surface, rising and falling with changes in the liquid level.

Satellite imagery confirms the use of floating roofs on Kharg Island, showing the movement of shadows on tank surfaces. Rising and falling shadows indicate changes in roof positions, reflecting fluctuations in the oil level.

The length of these shadows provides an approximate measure of tank fill levels: the longer the shadow, the less oil the tank holds.

Recent Planet satellite images show that none of the tanks on Kharg Island are full, with a significant drop in stored oil. Some tanks appear completely or nearly empty, highlighted in red in the accompanying images.

The decline appears unprecedented and has continued at least since December 2025. Over the past year, no tanks on Kharg Island have experienced such extensive emptying, particularly the larger tanks.

Intensified oil transfers from the island began in October 2025, a few months after the 12-day war, according to satellite imagery. Floating roof levels show continuous changes over days, alongside a heavy presence of oil tankers around the island compared with September 2025.

These developments coincide with escalating U.S. rhetoric against Iran, additional sanctions on Iranian oil, and repeated threats by President Donald Trump of potential military action.

Shadow Tankers Spotted Near Kharg Island

Misbar’s satellite monitoring revealed dozens of oil tankers operating around Kharg Island daily, while navigation tracking systems failed to detect them. At the same time, tugboats and Iranian multi-purpose vessels were seen moving extensively around the island and its ports.

Misbar confirmed the vessels were oil tankers based on their dimensions—ranging from 230 to 300 meters—and through visual comparison with images of known tankers.

Navigation data from Marine Traffic on March 22 showed no oil tankers near Kharg Island. Satellite imagery tells a different story: a Sentinel-2 image captured at 8 a.m. that day shows nine tankers around the island, including three at its ports, highlighting a discrepancy between satellite observation and navigation tracking data.

According to Tanker Trackers, a company specializing in crude oil shipment monitoring, Iran owns 88 vessels classified as part of a “shadow fleet”—ships operating outside conventional regulatory frameworks, often concealing their identities or disabling tracking systems such as the Automatic Identification System (AIS). These vessels are frequently used to transport oil or other goods beyond international oversight, particularly under economic sanctions.

Some shadow vessels do more than disable AIS—they assume the identities of decommissioned ships. For example, one vessel impersonated the Nabiin, which was dismantled in Bangladesh five years ago. Marine Traffic recorded its passage through the Strait of Hormuz on February 28, with erratic movements in the Persian Gulf and AIS disabled, before exiting the strait in a manner suggesting manipulation or interference with its identification system.

It remains unclear whether the vessel is officially part of Iran’s shadow fleet, which naturally includes tankers not registered as Iranian.

Several indicators suggest Iran is actively moving to drain Kharg Island’s oil reserves amid U.S. threats and the approaching arrival of the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli, expected in the Persian Gulf within five days. Key indicators include:

• Intensified oil tanker activity around Kharg Island, alongside declining oil levels in its tanks.
• Reports from press sources that Iranian oil shipments have risen to 2.1 million barrels per day since the start of the war, compared with 2 million barrels per day in February, exceeding the previous year’s average of 1.69 million barrels per day.
• Reuters, citing data from Tanker Trackers and energy analytics firm Kpler, reported that Iran’s oil exports reached a record 3.79 million barrels per day immediately before the war.

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