A small island in the Gulf has become a flashpoint in the widening war involving Iran, the United States and Israel. Kharg Island handles almost all of Iran’s oil exports – making it a vital economic lifeline for Tehran.
Issued on: 13/03/2026 - RFI
Kharg Island in the Gulf handles most of Iran’s oil exports, making it one of the most strategically important energy sites in the country. © NASA / Wikimedia Commons
As fighting intensifies and oil prices rise, the island has drawn growing attention in Washington and in global energy markets.
The eight-kilometre strip of land lies less than 25 kilometres from the Iranian coast and about 480 kilometres north of the Strait of Hormuz.
It hosts Iran’s main oil export terminal, where crude pumped by pipeline from major fields in south-west Iran – including Ahvaz, Marun and Gachsaran – is stored and loaded onto tankers bound largely for China.
Island in the crosshairs
As the conflict deepens, the island’s fate has become a topic of discussion in Washington.
The US news site Axios reported that American officials had discussed several options to increase pressure on Tehran. One possibility was securing Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium; another was taking control of Kharg Island.
“It is necessary to destroy all the energy infrastructure on Kharg Island to bring the Iranian economy to its knees,” former Israeli prime minister Yair Lapid said on Saturday in a social media post.
Energy specialists say the island’s role as an oil gateway explains why it is attracting such attention.
“Between 90 and 95 percent of Iran’s oil exports pass through Kharg Island,” Emmanuel Hache, research director at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations (IRIS), told RFI.
“Bombing this island or taking control of it would simply prevent Iran from exporting its oil.”
As fighting intensifies and oil prices rise, the island has drawn growing attention in Washington and in global energy markets.
The eight-kilometre strip of land lies less than 25 kilometres from the Iranian coast and about 480 kilometres north of the Strait of Hormuz.
It hosts Iran’s main oil export terminal, where crude pumped by pipeline from major fields in south-west Iran – including Ahvaz, Marun and Gachsaran – is stored and loaded onto tankers bound largely for China.
Island in the crosshairs
As the conflict deepens, the island’s fate has become a topic of discussion in Washington.
The US news site Axios reported that American officials had discussed several options to increase pressure on Tehran. One possibility was securing Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium; another was taking control of Kharg Island.
“It is necessary to destroy all the energy infrastructure on Kharg Island to bring the Iranian economy to its knees,” former Israeli prime minister Yair Lapid said on Saturday in a social media post.
Energy specialists say the island’s role as an oil gateway explains why it is attracting such attention.
“Between 90 and 95 percent of Iran’s oil exports pass through Kharg Island,” Emmanuel Hache, research director at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations (IRIS), told RFI.
“Bombing this island or taking control of it would simply prevent Iran from exporting its oil.”
Iran's oil lifeline
Iran’s oil sector generates around $50 billion a year and remains one of the country’s main sources of revenue. It is the third-largest producer in OPEC and accounts for about 4.5 percent of global oil supply.
“A large part of these resources is controlled by the Revolutionary Guards, and that finances the regime’s security and military apparatus,” Hache said. “If Iranian exports via Kharg Island are paralysed, the regime itself could be paralysed.”
Despite international sanctions, Iran still produces around 4 million barrels of oil a day and exports on average between 1 million and 1.5 million barrels daily, according to data from energy analytics firm Kpler.
But in the weeks before the current strikes began, Tehran sharply increased shipments from Kharg.
Exports rose to more than 3 million barrels a day between 15 and 20 February – nearly triple the usual level – according to a note by US investment bank JP Morgan that was cited by Reuters.
The Kharg terminal can also store vast quantities of crude. Kpler analysts estimate the island’s storage capacity at around 30 million barrels, with roughly 18 million barrels currently held there – the equivalent of about 10 to 12 days of Iran’s normal oil exports.
Kharg’s strategic role is not new. A declassified CIA note from 1984 described the island’s oil installations as “the most vital” part of Iran’s petroleum system, essential to the country’s economy and its war effort against Iraq.
During the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, the island was repeatedly targeted during what became known as the “tanker war” – when both sides attacked energy exports. The facilities were damaged but quickly rebuilt.
Escalation risks
For now, Kharg Island has been spared the latest wave of strikes.
“The United States and Israel may not have wanted to bomb Kharg Island in order not to worsen tensions on the oil markets,” Hache explained. “Every time oil infrastructure in the Gulf is hit, prices rise.”
Even so, shipping activity around Kharg has continued. Bloomberg reported that supertankers were still loading crude at Kharg earlier in the week and that some Iranian tankers had crossed the Strait of Hormuz, even as shipping through the vital waterway slowed sharply.
Tanker-tracking data suggests Iran has continued exporting crude despite the fighting. Maritime intelligence company TankerTrackers reported that shipments totalled roughly 13.7 million barrels in the first days of March, while Kpler estimated exports of about 16.5 million barrels during the first 11 days of the month.
Kharg could also become a strategic military position in the conflict.
“We could even imagine the United States protecting part of its fleet around the island,” Hache said. “It could serve as a kind of shield for the American navy.”
But striking the island could trigger a much wider escalation in the region.
Israeli attacks during the conflict have already hit Iranian infrastructure, raising fears that energy facilities could also become targets.
Washington has said it does not intend to target Iran’s energy infrastructure directly, although analysts question whether that restraint would hold if the war intensifies.
“The Americans and the Israelis have no interest in destroying oil installations,” energy economist Jean-Pierre Favennec told RFI.
“The Iranians could retaliate by attacking the oil infrastructure of other Gulf countries.”
This article has been adapted from the original version in French by RFI's Aurore Lartigue.llations,” energy economist Jean-Pierre Favennec told RFI.
“The Iranians could retaliate by attacking the oil infrastructure of other Gulf countries.”
This article has been adapted from the original version in French by RFI's Aurore Lartigue.
Kharg Island: Iran’s ‘untouchable’ oil artery?
Some 25 kilometres off Iran’s southern coast lies a tiny island overrun by pipelines, terminals and storage facilities. This is Kharg Island – the beating heart of Iran’s oil exports – and a seemingly perfect target to weaken the Islamic Republic. But despite mounting pressure from Israel, the United States appears reluctant to strike it. Why?
Issued on: 10/03/2026
Some 25 kilometres off Iran’s southern coast lies a tiny island overrun by pipelines, terminals and storage facilities. This is Kharg Island – the beating heart of Iran’s oil exports – and a seemingly perfect target to weaken the Islamic Republic. But despite mounting pressure from Israel, the United States appears reluctant to strike it. Why?
Issued on: 10/03/2026
By: Sébastian SEIBT
FRANCE24
To bomb or not to bomb Kharg Island? To launch or not to launch a ground offensive? These are the questions that seem to be occupying American and Israeli military planners right now.
Kharg Island, an arid piece of land measuring some 20 square kilometres near the port city of Bushehr, accounts for the bulk of Iran’s oil exports.
Taking it out would take seconds and devastate the Iranian economy for decades to come.
Yet the Trump administration appears reluctant about how – and even if – it should launch an attack on this tiny coral islet.
According to several news outlets, discussions within the Trump administration are currently running high on how to deal with Kharg Island.
Hands off?
Although Israel’s former prime minister Yair Lapid last week bluntly stated that “all of Iran's oil fields and energy industry on Kharg Island” must be destroyed if Israel and the US ever hope to topple the sitting regime, all attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure have so far been avoided.
But why? Especially since most experts agree on the strategic importance of Kharg Island.
Neil Quilliam, a Gulf energy specialist at think-tank Chatham House, described the island as “the crown jewel” of Iran’s oil industry.
Sonia Martinez-Giron, executive director of the International Team for the Study of Security Verona (ITSS), confirmed Kharg’s undisputed value for Iran: “It harbours 90 percent of Iranian oil exports, and is the artery connecting the Iranian economy to the global economy”.
According to Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer at the School of Security Studies at King’s College London, “Kharg is one of the few places where a strike could have immediate strategic and economic consequences.”
Scott Lucas, a professor of international politics at the University of Dublin, said a take-over of the island would be “the equivalent of trying to seize every tanker of the Russian (shadow) fleet”.
The rise of the Iranian lifeline
So how did Kharg Island become such an important oil hub in the first place?
The island was initially developed as Iran’s principal crude oil export terminal by an American-Iranian joint venture, the Khark Chemical Company, under the former shah in the 1960s. More infrastructure was added to the island under the more than four-decade-long reign of Ayatollah Khamenei. Today, it is almost completely covered in terminals, pipelines and storage tanks.
The main reason for why Iran has concentrated its precious oil exports to Kharg Island is location.
“Because of the shallow waters of the Gulf, very large tankers cannot berth near the inland,” Quilliam explained. “They need to offload and unload from a deep port, and the only one really available is the one on Kharg Island.”
Geographical Magazine, a publication belonging to the Royal Geographical Society, wrote that “the result is a dense concentration of energy infrastructure that makes the island one of the most strategically sensitive points in the global oil network”.
One of Iran’s best-defended sites
Prior to the western sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear programme, oil companies from across the world sourced crude from Kharg Island. It was particularly important for French energy giant Total.
Over time, the island became so important for Iran that it even turned into a priority target during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. Already back then, Kharg Island was in the crosshairs of its enemies because its destruction would economically cripple Iran.
The war destroyed most of the facilities on the island, and after it ended, Iran made it a priority to rebuild them.
Since then, Kharg Island has become one of Iran’s best defended sites.
But, noted Quilliam, “if the US or Israel wanted to carry out strikes against it, they have the capability to do so”.
So why don’t they?
What is holding the US and Israel back? For one, Lucas explained, because it would represent a major escalation of the conflict.
“You hit Kharg and the Iranian regime's going to say: ‘Look, we've got nothing to lose by just simply going all out.’ And that means choking off the straits. It means going after refineries across the Middle East.”
Secondly, because it would not only hurt Iran.
“Global oil prices just reached historic high levels,” Martinez-Giron said. “Seizing Kharg Island in a moment like this would be the last blow to Iran’s economy, and it would have consequences beyond this war, affecting the global economy and security.”
"Kharg Island highlights the interconnectedness of the energy sector with food systems," she said, pointing to the link between transport costs and food costs.
“It is difficult to see how a decision like this would harm the regime without harming human security."
Quilliam also noted that Washington might want to avoid bombing the island because if it manages to replace the current leadership, “the successor regime will need to operate Kharg Island. It will be essential to the success of any successor, simply in terms of the money it's going to generate”.
What about a ground offensive?
This is why an attempt to seize, rather than destroy, the facilities on Kharg Island through a ground offensive might be an option.
But the experts FRANCE 24 spoke to are sceptical this is even up for serious debate.
"As for the rumours about a US land operation, I would treat them carefully,” Krieg said. “A landing operation there would be a major escalation. It would mean physically taking or neutralizing a strategic island close to the Iranian coast while exposed to Iranian missiles, drones and naval retaliation. That is a much bigger step than an airstrike."
Martinez-Giron said it is more likely that a third, less reported, option might be on the table.
“We are waiting to see whether there will be sabotage and cyberattacks affecting the oil infrastructure on the island. This would certainly choke the Iranian economy without having to engage militarily.”
This article was adapted from the original in French by Louise Nordstrom.
Kharg Island is often described as Iran’s “crown jewel” in terms of its importance for the country’s oil industry. © Studio graphique France Médias Monde
To bomb or not to bomb Kharg Island? To launch or not to launch a ground offensive? These are the questions that seem to be occupying American and Israeli military planners right now.
Kharg Island, an arid piece of land measuring some 20 square kilometres near the port city of Bushehr, accounts for the bulk of Iran’s oil exports.
Taking it out would take seconds and devastate the Iranian economy for decades to come.
Yet the Trump administration appears reluctant about how – and even if – it should launch an attack on this tiny coral islet.
According to several news outlets, discussions within the Trump administration are currently running high on how to deal with Kharg Island.
Hands off?
Although Israel’s former prime minister Yair Lapid last week bluntly stated that “all of Iran's oil fields and energy industry on Kharg Island” must be destroyed if Israel and the US ever hope to topple the sitting regime, all attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure have so far been avoided.
But why? Especially since most experts agree on the strategic importance of Kharg Island.
Neil Quilliam, a Gulf energy specialist at think-tank Chatham House, described the island as “the crown jewel” of Iran’s oil industry.
Sonia Martinez-Giron, executive director of the International Team for the Study of Security Verona (ITSS), confirmed Kharg’s undisputed value for Iran: “It harbours 90 percent of Iranian oil exports, and is the artery connecting the Iranian economy to the global economy”.
According to Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer at the School of Security Studies at King’s College London, “Kharg is one of the few places where a strike could have immediate strategic and economic consequences.”
Scott Lucas, a professor of international politics at the University of Dublin, said a take-over of the island would be “the equivalent of trying to seize every tanker of the Russian (shadow) fleet”.
The rise of the Iranian lifeline
So how did Kharg Island become such an important oil hub in the first place?
The island was initially developed as Iran’s principal crude oil export terminal by an American-Iranian joint venture, the Khark Chemical Company, under the former shah in the 1960s. More infrastructure was added to the island under the more than four-decade-long reign of Ayatollah Khamenei. Today, it is almost completely covered in terminals, pipelines and storage tanks.
The main reason for why Iran has concentrated its precious oil exports to Kharg Island is location.
“Because of the shallow waters of the Gulf, very large tankers cannot berth near the inland,” Quilliam explained. “They need to offload and unload from a deep port, and the only one really available is the one on Kharg Island.”
Geographical Magazine, a publication belonging to the Royal Geographical Society, wrote that “the result is a dense concentration of energy infrastructure that makes the island one of the most strategically sensitive points in the global oil network”.
One of Iran’s best-defended sites
Prior to the western sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear programme, oil companies from across the world sourced crude from Kharg Island. It was particularly important for French energy giant Total.
Over time, the island became so important for Iran that it even turned into a priority target during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. Already back then, Kharg Island was in the crosshairs of its enemies because its destruction would economically cripple Iran.
The war destroyed most of the facilities on the island, and after it ended, Iran made it a priority to rebuild them.
Since then, Kharg Island has become one of Iran’s best defended sites.
But, noted Quilliam, “if the US or Israel wanted to carry out strikes against it, they have the capability to do so”.
So why don’t they?
What is holding the US and Israel back? For one, Lucas explained, because it would represent a major escalation of the conflict.
“You hit Kharg and the Iranian regime's going to say: ‘Look, we've got nothing to lose by just simply going all out.’ And that means choking off the straits. It means going after refineries across the Middle East.”
Secondly, because it would not only hurt Iran.
“Global oil prices just reached historic high levels,” Martinez-Giron said. “Seizing Kharg Island in a moment like this would be the last blow to Iran’s economy, and it would have consequences beyond this war, affecting the global economy and security.”
"Kharg Island highlights the interconnectedness of the energy sector with food systems," she said, pointing to the link between transport costs and food costs.
“It is difficult to see how a decision like this would harm the regime without harming human security."
Quilliam also noted that Washington might want to avoid bombing the island because if it manages to replace the current leadership, “the successor regime will need to operate Kharg Island. It will be essential to the success of any successor, simply in terms of the money it's going to generate”.
What about a ground offensive?
This is why an attempt to seize, rather than destroy, the facilities on Kharg Island through a ground offensive might be an option.
But the experts FRANCE 24 spoke to are sceptical this is even up for serious debate.
"As for the rumours about a US land operation, I would treat them carefully,” Krieg said. “A landing operation there would be a major escalation. It would mean physically taking or neutralizing a strategic island close to the Iranian coast while exposed to Iranian missiles, drones and naval retaliation. That is a much bigger step than an airstrike."
Martinez-Giron said it is more likely that a third, less reported, option might be on the table.
“We are waiting to see whether there will be sabotage and cyberattacks affecting the oil infrastructure on the island. This would certainly choke the Iranian economy without having to engage militarily.”
This article was adapted from the original in French by Louise Nordstrom.
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