‘Kharg Island Is Iran’s Oil Jugular’

There has been no let-up in the Israel-US war against Iran since the first strikes on February 28. While focus has always been on the Strait of Hormuz, all eyes have now turned to Trump’s most recent threat where he vowed to target Kharg island’s critical oil facilities if Iran continued to block Hormuz. In an interview with The Perfect Voice, Captain Naveen S. Singhal, former merchant navy captain and currently a shipping and marine consultant and member, Singapore Shipping Association, analyses on what Kharg island means to Iran, and the impact of its immobilisation on India and the rest of the world.

Here are excerpts:

Reports suggest that the US is weighing a possible ground operation to seize Kharg Island. What are the implications in that case?

Kharg island is about 25 square km. It was first developed into an oil terminal in the 1960s under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in partnership with American oil company Amoco Typically, Kharg accounts for 90 percent of Iran’s crude exports, which usually hover at about 1.3 million barrels a day. The island benefits from proximity to the country’s giant onshore oil fields, deep-water berths, huge storage capacity and the ability to load tankers fast. Hence, it is favoured by Iran.

On March 13, Donald Trump said that the U.S. bombed military installations on Iran’s Kharg island, warning the area’s critical oil facilities could be next if Iran continues to block the Strait of Hormuz.

What happens if the island is immobilised?

In that event, Iran will have to force the exit of all its oil from this facility. Kharg island is one of the finest oil terminals, from the navigator’s point of view and also from a tanker owner’s point of view. It is Iran’s oil jugular. It can take depths up to 29-30 metres. They have the sea terminal and very good depths. That’s why Iran has directed their pipelines through this facility. If something happens to Kharg, Iran will have to divert their oil through other facilities like Lavan, which is a critical industrial site housing one of Iran’s four major crude oil export terminals. The Lavan Gas Field, located beneath the island, contains 9.5 trillion cubic feet of gas. There are other facilities too but Lavan will be their major fall-back arrangement.

Can the USS Tripoli break the Strait of Hormuz chokehold?

The USS Tripoli is an active America-class amphibious assault ship currently deployed to the Middle East. Last week, reports claimed that its passed Singapore and is expected to reach the Persian Gulf region soon. Whether or not it successfully enters the Gulf region is another question. But there is an interesting analogy here with 1915. At the time, Winston Churchill, as Britain’s First Lord of the Admiralty, was the primary proponent of the naval attack on the Dardanelles, a campaign intended to break through Ottoman defence and reach Constantinople. Churchill sought to use older British battleships, deemed unnecessary for the North Sea, to force the Dardanelles and reach the Sea of Marmara, relieving pressure on Russia and bypassing the Western Front stalemate. Gallipoli is a popular name for the peninsula to the west of the Dardanelles Straits in Turkey. This region was the setting for the famous and bloody battle that took place between the British and French troops of the Allies against the Turkish troops between April 1915 and January 1916. The area was much narrower than the strait of Hormuz. They lost a lot of ships and eventually as per historical details, thousands of casualties were reported in that region. Another important detail that the history highlights is that as such Iran has not attacked any country. Even the 1980-88 war was started by Saddam Hussain. Historically, Iran has never been the first one to launch an attack.

Could you explain India’s position and stand on the US-Israel war against Iran?

On March 18, the international maritime organisation called for an extraordinary meeting to discuss the Gulf issue. As far as India is concerned, India is also a council member of the IMO, and India has carefully traded this line. They say that India continues to advocate for collaborative maritime security in the Indian Ocean region. So, it’s very clear that India does not want to get inside the Persian Gulf. The Indian delegation has highlighted the proactive measures under the SAGAR Initiative (Security and Growth for All in the Region) which is India’s strategic framework for maritime cooperation in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) launched in 2015 to foster trust, sustainable development, and regional security. India’s stance is sensible as there is no reason to send our ships into the Persian Gulf. However, India is not insulated or isolated from the ongoing events. If the war continues for another three-four weeks, everyone will feel the pinch as far as oil and aviation is concerned. We may have to resort to rationing.

How far can the Indian navy secure merchant ships in the Persian Gulf?

For any naval force – be it Indian or any other country, to provide security to merchant ships inside the Persian Gulf in the current situation is near-unthinkable. From the navigation perspective, the entire Persian Gulf is a tough task. There is a navigational restriction. Another difficulty are the unmanned surface vessels, or aerial drones making it difficult for the naval ships to handle the situation. Once they are out of the Gulf, they can be escorted safely. However, inside the Gulf, naval ships cannot guarantee the security of the merchant ships.

Will Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu port prove to be a successful Hormuz-bypass?

Saudi Arabia ramped up its oil exports to more than half of normal levels despite the disruptions from the Iran war, an early sign of success for the kingdom’s ambitious contingency plan to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. With Hormuz all but closed, Saudi Arabia has been rerouting oil through a 1,200 km (746 mile) pipeline to the western port of Yanbu. At the same time, it quickly amassed a huge armada of tankers that have streamed toward the Red Sea to load the oil and are now piling up around the port. But while the pipeline is a logistical triumph, it is also a geopolitical rerouting of risk. It does not eliminate the vulnerability of maritime passage ways; it merely transfers that dependency from one narrow strait to another, the Bab el-Mandeb entangling Saudi oil security with the politics of the Horn of Africa and the proxy ambitions of Iran.

These vessels when fully laden are physically incapable of transiting the Suez Canal and must instead navigate south through the Bab el-Mandeb to reach Asian markets or the Saudi Jazan refinery. There are draft restrictions, width restrictions, etc. One important point here is that Bab el-Mandeb has been sensible since 2023. Shipping was virtually passing south of Cape of Good Hope till 2025, when the Houthis became active, compelling ships to be re-routed. If the Houthis strike again, then owners of some of the VLCCs and the tankers will have to rethink about sending the tankers to Yanbu via the Red Sea.

Iran is threatening Middle Eastern electricity supply and desalination plants in the Gulf states. What are the implications?

Iran has intensified its attacks on its Gulf Arab neighbours’ energy infrastructure, recently setting Qatari liquified natural gas (LNG) facilities ablaze in a retaliatory strike to an Israeli attack on its main natural gas field.

The desalination plants in the Gulf states have emerged as a critical concern in this situation as they heavily on desalination plants for their drinking water supply. Any disruption to these facilities could have serious consequences for daily life in the region. The war is certainly taking a different turn.