Bessent Says Iran Will Have ‘No Oil on the Water’ This Week as Blockade Bites

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Iran will have no oil on the water this week, declaring that the American blockade and sanctions campaign have cut off Tehran’s most critical revenue stream.

“For the first time in history, since they started pumping oil, they will have no oil on the water this week,” Bessent said in an interview on The Axios Show released on Saturday. “They will have no revenues.”

According to preliminary Bloomberg estimates, Iran shipped no crude on tankers in September — the first time that has happened since the start of the war — underscoring the growing effectiveness of the US naval blockade on Iranian ports.

Bessent laid out the campaign as a sequence: six weeks of kinetic conflict that, in his words, destroyed Iran’s navy and air force and depleted its drone and missile capability, followed by what President Trump calls the “Iron Wall” blockade, and now Operation Economic Outcast — a Treasury effort isolating Iran economically “like it’s never happened before.”

He framed the tally as about 1.1 billion barrels of US oil moving through the Strait of Hormuz versus zero for Iran, and said Tehran was still supplying some Chinese refiners from stockpiles shipped earlier into Asia — but those could soon run down.

Tehran has redirected more trade via land borders and the Caspian Sea, according to the reporting, though those routes cannot fully offset the squeeze. Soaring inflation at home continues to erode what ordinary Iranians can afford, with the rial losing about a quarter of its value against the dollar over the past two months.

Sources

• meaww: Iran Zero — Scott Bessent Gives New Details on Trump’s Iran Campaign
• Bloomberg (via Newsbeep)
• Combat Rated: Bessent Iran Economic Blockade — Operation Economic Outcast