US Strikes Three Iranian Oil Tankers as Asian Importers Build Stockpiles at Home

The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) struck three Iranian oil tankers on September 5, hours after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired ballistic missiles at a US aircraft carrier and a guided-missile destroyer. Both warships evaded the missiles and no American personnel were injured, CENTCOM said. American forces permanently disabled the M/T Downy off Kharg Island and the M/T Stark 1 near Jask, and destroyed the M/T Kylo near the Gulf of Oman after directing its crew to abandon the vessel, which was carrying no cargo. Admiral Brad Cooper, the CENTCOM commander, said the strikes were meant to impose "an even higher economic cost" on Iran and called the tankers part of a network that finances the IRGC and its regional partners, according to Al Jazeera. Iranian state television said four American missiles hit a tanker about 10 kilometres from Kharg Island, the terminal through which Iran exports most of its crude, Iranian accounts reported.

Washington is now targeting the vessels that carry Iranian oil, not only the forces that threaten shipping. That reaches directly into Asian supply. China buys the large majority of Iran's exports through tankers that disguise their movements, and its purchases have already fallen to about 534,000 barrels a day in August from roughly 823,000 in July, the China-Global South Project reports. Every disabled hull removes discounted barrels that independent Chinese refiners had been using to hold down their input costs. Brent crude traded above $96 a barrel this week, according to CNBC.

Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains far below normal. Reuters counted six vessels passing on September 2, made up of two large gas carriers, two long-haul tankers, one Supramax and one Panamax, according to TASS. The waterway normally carries about 20 million barrels of oil a day. Security threats, unavailable insurance and operational uncertainty have kept most owners away, though Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC that more than 17 million barrels moved through the strait on a single day this week under American naval protection. The missile attack on the carrier and the destroyer was aimed at exactly that escort system.

Asian importers are no longer waiting for the route to reopen. They are building stockpiles on their own territory. Al Jazeera reports that China's plan for 2026 to 2030 adds pipelines and liquefied natural gas storage, with the state operator PipeChina accelerating close to 40 projects including 9,000 kilometres of domestic pipeline. India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation will build a reserve of 1.75 million tonnes, about 13 million barrels, while the government moves up the second phase of its strategic reserves in Odisha and Karnataka. Japan, which draws more than 90 percent of its crude from the Middle East, has authorised a phased release from state and mandatory private stockpiles.

The costs land unevenly. The Financial Times reports that Jebel Ali, the port that built modern Dubai, faces existential risk as marine traffic to the Gulf declines. A transshipment hub earns its return from throughput, and throughput is precisely what a closed strait removes. The United States Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects most regional crude production to return toward pre-conflict averages in early 2027, with disruption of about 0.6 million barrels a day persisting through the end of next year. That forecast assumed the fighting would stay away from export infrastructure.

Storage is a form of insurance, and insurance is a cost. Every barrel held in a cavern in Odisha or a tank in Zhejiang is capital that earns nothing until a crisis arrives. Governments are choosing to carry that cost because the alternative, a sudden inability to import, is worse. The economic effect is a permanent increase in the working capital required to run an energy importing economy, and a corresponding transfer of margin from consumers to whoever builds and finances the tanks.