Donald Trump has mentioned his forces carried out a bombing raid on Iran’s “crown jewel” Kharg, a small island within the north of the Persian Gulf, on Friday.
The five-mile-long coral island – twice the scale of London’s Heathrow Airport – is within the north of the Persian Gulf, 16 miles (26km) from Iran’s coast and roughly 300 miles (483km) north of the Strait of Hormuz, the very important waterway by means of which 20% of world oil flows, that Tehran has shut down.
President Trump mentioned US forces “obliterated” navy targets on Kharg Island, however considerably mentioned he selected to not “wipe out” the island’s oil infrastructure. He threatened that this might change if Iran interfered with the secure passage of ships by means of the strait.
Iran latest – follow live updates
Tehran warned of a brand new degree of retaliation if the oil infrastructure on Kharg was broken, vowing on Saturday that Iranian forces would destroy the oil and fuel infrastructure of firms cooperating with the US within the area if its websites had been focused, in line with Iranian state media.
However why is the island so vital?
Kharg Island. Pic: Planet Labs PBC through AP
Why was no oil infrastructure hit?
Kharg is the export terminal for 90% of Iran’s oil shipments and has the capability to load round seven million barrels a day.
The island can deal with as many as 10 supertankers on the identical time, as its waters are deep sufficient to allow the docking of tankers which are too massive to strategy mainland Iran’s shallow coastal waters.
Earlier than the warfare, the island dealt with most of Iran’s roughly 1.7 million barrels of crude exports per day, with nearly all of it going to China.
Pipelines transferring crude oil from storage on the hills of Kharg Island to tankers within the japanese dock in 2016. Pic: AP
Iranian oil accounts for 11.6% of China’s seaborne imports thus far in 2026, in line with tanker tracker Kpler. “Due to this fact, if [Mr Trump] was to take that out, he may danger the ire of China,” Sky Information’ military analyst Sean Bell mentioned.
Hitting Kharg’s oil infrastructure would additionally possible result in oil costs surging even additional, after they hit a four-year excessive on Friday.
Oil exports persevering with regardless of warfare
Within the week earlier than the warfare broke out, Kharg shipped a report of three.79 million barrels per day, and operations on the island have continued regardless of the battle.
About 13.7 million barrels of oil have been exported from the island because the US-Israeli strikes had been launched on 28 February, at a price of 1.1 million to 1.5 million barrels per day, in line with maritime intelligence firm TankerTrackers.com and Kpler knowledge.
A number of tankers had been nonetheless loading there on Wednesday, in line with satellite tv for pc footage from Tanker Trackers.
Kharg has storage tanks within the south, together with housing for 1000’s of employees. It has a storage capability of roughly 30 million barrels, and held about 18 million barrels of crude as of early March, in line with a JP Morgan report citing Kpler knowledge.
Essential to funding of Iranian authorities
The island has lengthy been seen as a key vulnerability that will provoke a extreme response by Tehran if attacked.
Kharg is important to funding Iran’s authorities and navy, and if Iran had been to lose management of the island, it will be tough for the nation to perform, in line with Petras Katinas, an vitality researcher on the Royal United Companies Institute.
Mr Katinas mentioned a takeover would give the US leverage over negotiations with Iran as a result of the island is “the principle node” of its financial system.
Whereas there was hypothesis that the US could possibly be tempted to grab Kharg Island, consultants say that will virtually actually require troops on the bottom, making it extraordinarily dangerous.
One Iranian politician has reportedly already threatened US troops with seize in the event that they try to seize its essential oil hub.
JP Morgan’s world commodity analysis group pressured the broader financial implications of a direct strike on the island, warning earlier than the US struck navy targets on Kharg that strikes would “instantly halt the majority of Iran’s crude exports, possible triggering extreme retaliation within the Strait of Hormuz or in opposition to regional vitality infrastructure”.
“You are taking out Kharg infrastructure, then you definately take two million [barrels per day] out of the marketplace for good – not till the Straits get fastened,” added Dan Pickering, chief funding officer for Pickering Power Companions.
Injury to the island
Iranian state media reported that no oil infrastructure was broken within the US strikes, including that air defences, a naval base, airport management tower, and a helicopter hangar had been focused.
The US “efficiently struck” greater than 90 navy targets, together with naval mine storage amenities and missile storage bunkers, the US Central Command mentioned.
The 55 crude oil storage tanks, which might maintain greater than 34 million barrels, are “almost certainly unscathed”, Tanker Trackers mentioned.
“Though the island has some offshore oil manufacturing, the majority of the oil really derives from the mainland through a number of pipelines,” the monitoring service mentioned.
“The island first started exporting oil in the course of the summer season of 1960 and was constructed to [accommodate] 7 million barrels per day in exports, to mirror the potential in oil manufacturing. Iran hit 6.6 [million barrels per day] in manufacturing again in 1976.”
Learn extra:
Trump’s post reveals much about island strike
US Navy to escort oil tankers through Strait of Hormuz
The maritime intelligence firm added that satellite tv for pc imagery from Saturday confirmed two new tankers started loading 2.7 million barrels of crude oil there.
Actions on the island, together with exports and imports, are “continuing usually” after the strikes, the deputy governor of Bushehr, a port metropolis near Kharg, mentioned, including that no navy personnel, oil firm staff or island residents had been killed.
Was the island focused earlier than?
Regardless of being seen as a important vulnerability, the island has not often been immediately focused.
The final time was in the course of the Iran-Iraq warfare within the Nineteen Eighties, nevertheless it didn’t cease crude oil exports from Kharg.
“When Saddam Hussein raided the island quite a few occasions 40 years in the past and destroyed quite a few storage tanks, Kharg Island was nonetheless capable of export over 1.5 million barrels per day,” Tanker Trackers mentioned in a submit on X.
