A satellite tv for pc picture reveals an oil terminal at Kharg Island. Photograph: Planet Labs PBC/Handout by way of REUTERS
A U.S. assault has “completely obliterated each army goal” on Kharg Island, Iran’s crown jewel within the Persian Gulf, stated President Donald Trump in a social media submit on March 14. Trump described the assault as “one of the highly effective bombing raids within the historical past of the Center East”. The assault got here after Mr. Trump’s earlier warning to Iran to not shut the Strait of Hormuz, a essential maritime checkpoint connecting the Gulf with the Arabian Sea. The strait stays successfully closed.
Because the U.S.–Israel struggle on Iran enters its second week, Kharg Island is now on the centre of the battle. The tiny coral outpost within the Gulf sits on the centre of Iran’s oil export community. The assault on the island now raises the danger of choking Iran’s financial lifeline and triggering wider international disruptions.
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Kharg Island isn’t any abnormal speck of land. Barely 8 km lengthy and masking about 20 sq. km, it rises from the northern Persian Gulf as a small island, about 25–30 km off Iran’s mainland coast. It sits within the turquoise waters of the Gulf. The panorama is dominated not by nature however by business: huge storage tanks, sprawling jetties and an airstrip chopping throughout the island. Tremendous tankers dock right here every day to load thousands and thousands of barrels of crude piped in from Iran’s inland oil fields.
‘Forbidden island’
Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, the celebrated twentieth century Iranian author and thinker, as soon as described Kharg because the “orphan pearl” of the Persian Gulf. Right now, many Iranians time period it the “forbidden Island” due to the tight army restrictions surrounding it. Guarded by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), entry is proscribed to these with official clearance.
Regardless of the secrecy, the island has a protracted and layered historical past. Kharg has lengthy been a part of regional commerce networks. Historical data from across the tenth century describe it as a cease for pearl divers and merchants travelling between India and Basra, Iraq. Dutch retailers fortified the island within the 18th century earlier than being pushed out, and the British briefly occupied it within the nineteenth.
Not like most of Iran’s shoreline, the place shallow waters make it tough for giant tankers to dock, Kharg has deep waters and lengthy jetties that permit a number of ships to load oil on the similar time. Its oil terminal was constructed within the late Fifties with assist from the American firm Amoco, after trendy supertankers proved too massive for a lot of of Iran’s ports.
Export hub
The island quickly grew to become Iran’s primary export hub for 2 key causes. It might be related by pipeline to the foremost oil fields of south-western Iran, and its deep-water location meant it was one of many few locations the place the brand new era of supertankers may dock simply. By the Seventies, Kharg was already able to loading a number of supertankers directly. After the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the services have been nationalised. Through the Iran–Iraq Warfare in 1980, Saddam Hussain’s forces repeatedly bombed the island’s oil terminal, however Iran rebuilt it and stored exports flowing.
Its trendy significance, nonetheless, comes from oil.
As much as 90% of Iran’s crude exports move by means of the Kharg Island terminal. Oil from Iran’s largest producing fields, corresponding to Ahvaz, Marun and Gachsaran travels by way of pipeline to the Kharg island earlier than being loaded onto tankers that sail by means of the Strait of Hormuz and into international markets.
Kharg sometimes handles between 1.3 and 1.6 million barrels of oil a day. Within the weeks earlier than the U.S. and Israel launched the struggle on Iran, exports briefly surged shut to a few million barrels a day. The island can load as much as a most of seven million barrels a day and retailer roughly 30 million barrels at a time.
Extra disruption
Most of that oil now goes to at least one nation: China. China has emerged as the most important purchaser of Iranian crude, importing greater than 80% of the nation’s oil exports. Iran earned $35.76 billion from oil exports in 2024, with China accounting for over 90% of that. This dependence is one motive Kharg has grow to be a spotlight of discussions in Washington. Whoever controls the island successfully controls the principle outlet for Iran’s oil. The concept of focusing on Kharg Island will not be new, it has lengthy been a part of Mr. Trump’s pondering. Almost 40 years in the past, he urged putting Iran’s primary oil-export hub if tensions escalated. “I’d be harsh on Iran,” he advised The Guardian in 1988. “One bullet shot at considered one of our males or ships, and I’d do a quantity on Kharg Island. I’d go in and take it.”
The assault on Kharg may cripple the worldwide provide, doubtlessly pushing costs even increased. On Friday, Brent crude traded at $103.8 a barrel, up from $73 earlier than the struggle broke out. Iran had earlier warned that any strike on the island would set off swift retaliation. The struggle now seems set to escalate additional—unhealthy information for the worldwide vitality market and customers.
Revealed – March 14, 2026 11:59 am IST