Iran has more and more oil it can't sell - even to China

Iran is struggling to offload and sell its oil reserves to China before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated and a policy of "maximum pressure" is reinstated, according to a report by Iran International.

According to Kpler, an oil tanker tracking company, daily oil deliveries from Iran to China have dropped below 1.3 million barrels, 550,000 barrels fewer than in October.

Iran's floating, unsold oil reserves have also increased substantially to 20 million barrels, after entirely zeroing out over the course of the Biden administration's loosening of sanctions.

Sanctions imposed on Iran's "dark fleet" of tankers, which shut off their locators to covertly sell oil, as well as Chinese efforts to modernise or shut down the inefficient refineries to which Iran delivers its oil, have substantially hampered efforts to offload the oil.