Iran has reportedly activated a 30-year old retired super tanker, NASHA, to store oil, as the United States blockade has forced their storage to reach critical capacity.
🚨 IRAN'S GHOST SHIP OF DESPERATION: Meet NASHA – The 30-Year-Old Corpse They Dragged from Retirement to Buy 48 Hours Before the Wells Die
— Tony Seruga (@TonySeruga) April 24, 2026
Iran just exhumed a rusting 1996-built VLCC from her long retirement off Kharg Island.
Her name: NASHA (IMO 9079107).
Capacity: 2 million… pic.twitter.com/sLImCy8qAA
JUST IN: Iran just pulled a thirty-year-old empty supertanker out of retirement and began towing it toward Kharg Island. She is moving so slowly that a voyage that should take a day and a half is taking four days.
— Shanaka Anslem Perera ⚡ (@shanaka86) April 24, 2026
Her name is NASHA. IMO 9079107. Built 1996. A two-million-barrel… pic.twitter.com/Y2bRmcAwla
The super tanker is capable of holding two-million barrels of oil, and is currently on it's way to Kharg island, a critical component of Iran's oil refining capcity that handles roughly 90 percent of the country's crude oil. The tanker is set to give the Iranian regime an additional 48 hours as it struggles to form a unified position and strategy for negotiations with the United States.
The current U.S. blockade has effectively cut off Iran’s oil exports, not only crippling the country financially but also forcing it to store excess crude. But the situation could soon get worse: once storage capacity is maxed out, Iran may be forced to shut in production wells, risking permanent damage from water coning and potentially removing 300,000 to 500,000 barrels per day of future output.
One analyst said that the activation of NASHA shows a regime quickly running out of options.
The vessel is also so old, that a trip that would take a typical tanker only a day and a half to reach Kharg island, is set to take around four.
To prepare for the possibility of running out of oil storage space at Kharg Island, Iran has brought NASHA (9079107) out of retirement. She's a 30yo VLCC that's been anchored empty for the past few years; currently spending 4 days on a trip that should take 1.5–2 days. #OOTT pic.twitter.com/jFhq2xP0mU
— TankerTrackers.com, Inc. (@TankerTrackers) April 23, 2026
This comes as Secretary of War Pete Hegseth provided an update Friday morning on the ongoing U.S. blockade, which he said "is tightening by the hour."
🚨 HEGSETH TO TEHRAN: YOU’RE FINISHED
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) April 24, 2026
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth just delivered a brutal message to the Iranian regime:
“The blockade is tightening by the hour. We are in total control — nothing in, nothing out.
Iran’s battered military, especially the IRGC, has been… pic.twitter.com/iySOqx3EQU