“First Time In History”: Bessent Says Iran Faces Zero Oil Revenue As Tanker Loadings Collapse

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent joined Mike Allen for a new episode of “The Axios Show,” published Saturday morning.

Bessent spoke about the Iran war’s effect on the cost of living for US consumers and his “I am the house” comment early last month, which warned anyone betting against the Treasury’s defense of the long end of the market.

Beyond the broader global bond rout, his comments on the Strait of Hormuz added color to President Trump’s economic stranglehold on Tehran.

“They are isolating them economically like this never happened before. You know, right now, the score: barrels out of the Strait: U.S. about 1.1 billion, Iran zero,” Bessent told Allen.

Bessent continued, “For the first time in history, they, since they started pumping oil, they will have no oil on the water this week. They will have no revenue.”

Bessent on Iran:

For the first time in history, since they started pumping oil, they will have no oil on the water this week.

They will have no revenues. pic.twitter.com/PIrHwUCG4q

— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 3, 2026

Separately, last week, Goldman analysts Yulia Zhestkova Grigsby, Alexandra Paulus, and Daan Struyven told clients that a “divergence between the fall of Iranian exports and the rise of exports of other Persian Gulf producers” was underway.

The Goldman energy experts estimated that “dark exports” have helped boost Persian Gulf oil exports to 23.3 million barrels a day over the past week, back to prewar levels.

Also last week, Bloomberg News reported that Iran’s crude loadings crashed to zero in August from around 250,000 barrels per day.

Data providers Kpler and Vortexa also recorded zero crude loadings last month.

The collapse in Iranian crude loadings suggests the US naval blockade is constraining Tehran’s export options, while recovering flows from other Gulf producers point to eroded Iranian leverage over the strait. If sustained, Tehran’s oil revenues would plunge, pressuring the regime to make a deal.