Kharg Island

Kharg Island Latest News

The United States is considering seizing Iran’s Kharg Island to choke off the regime’s oil revenues, a US official has suggested.

About Kharg Island

• It is a small coral island in Iran in the northern Persian Gulf.
• It lies about 30 Km from the Iranian mainland.
• Its area is 25 sq.km., its length is 8 km, and its width is 4.5 km.
• This rocky limestone island is unique because it is one of the few islands in the Persian Gulf with freshwater, which has collected within the porous limestone.
• The island experiences hot and humid summers, and its highest point, Mount Didehban, stands at 87 meters above sea level.
• The discovery of an offshore oil field in the waters around Kharg in the early 1960s stimulated the development of the island as a site for major petroleum and petrochemical installations. 
• Connection by pipelines to the underwater oil fields, as well as to the oil fields in Khuzistan province, transformed Kharg into Iran’s largest oil-loading terminal by the early 1970s. 
• During the Iran–Iraq war (1980–1988), Kharg repeatedly was bombed, and its oil facilities suffered extensive damage, but they were reconstructed in the early 1990s.
• It facilitates as much as 90 percent of the country’s oil exports and is vital for Iran’s economy.
• It boasts a massive storage capacity of 28 million barrels and loading infrastructure capable of handling VLCCs and ULCCs.
• It has a loading capacity of about 7 million barrels per day. It can load eight to nine supertankers simultaneously.
• Its strategic significance lies in its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial global oil passage.

Source: TELE

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