Iran may begin mothballing its oil wells next week — US treasury secretary

NEW YORK, May 3. /TASS/. Iran may have to begin mothballing its oil wells next week as its storage facilities are rapidly filling up, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. "They are rapidly filling up, filling up storage, and as that happens, they're going to have to start shutting in wells, which we think could be in the next week," he said in an interview with Fox News. According to Bessent, oil prices will be lower after the US-Israeli war against Iran is over than they were at the beginning of the year, including due to the United Arab Emirates’ decision to withdraw from OPEC. "This gives me a lot of optimism that oil prices on the other side of this conflict are going to be much lower than they were going in or at the beginning of the year, or at any point in 2020, 2025," he said. The United States imposed a naval blockade of Iran on April 13, blocking the passage of any vessels to and from Iranian ports. US President Donald Trump warned in late April that Iranian oil pipelines may explode soon if the US blockade continues. Earlier, in a letter addressed to the UN Security Council, Iran’s Permanent Representative Amir Saeid Iravani accused the United States of "state piracy" after the seizure of two Iranian commercial vessels, Majestic and Tifani, and the theft of 3.8 million barrels of oil. Iran condemned these actions as a gross violation of the UN Charter, and called on the Security Council to take action. Tehran also said it reserves the right to respond to these actions in accordance with international law.