US Treasury official says Iran has stopped both loading and offloading of crude oil vessels due to US blockade and sanctions and estimates that Iran has 20mln bbls of crude oil left on vessels outside US blockade of Iranian ports

Claims of a full halt to loadings and offloading under a blockade are, in prior sanctions episodes, assertions that have tended to soften on closer inspection; enforcement of Iranian crude restrictions has historically been partial, with volumes continuing through ship-to-ship transfers, reflagged tonnage and buyers willing to run sanctions risk, so the operational question is less the official line than what tanker tracking shows over the coming weeks. The estimate of crude afloat outside the blockade matters as a stock variable: floating storage of that kind has in comparable episodes acted as a buffer that caps the prompt physical tightness a supply interruption would otherwise create, with the barrels eventually clearing at a discount into whatever demand will take them. The transmission channel runs through light sweet differentials and the front of the curve first, then freight and insurance on Gulf loadings if enforcement visibly bites. Officials speaking in this register are typically also doing diplomacy, and public quantification of the adversary's remaining stock has preceded both escalation and negotiation in past cycles. The tells are confirmed loadings at Iranian terminals, insurance quotes on the route, and whether the figure is revised as tracking data accumulate. As an official claim rather than a verified flow print, the information is directional.