Iran is starting to store oil on its fleet of supertankers again as impending U.S. sanctions force the Persian Gulf country to revive a strategy it deployed under previous curbs.

“We can expect floating storage to increase under the growing impact of U.S. sanctions in the coming months,” Harry Tchilinguirian, head of commodity-markets strategy at BNP Paribas SA, said from London.

So far, most of the ships in question - all of which are Iranian owned - have only been holding crude at sea for a few weeks, rather than for months at a time as they did during 2012-2016 sanctions, tanker tracking compiled by Bloomberg show.

Trump is trying to cut off Iran’s oil exports to deprive the third-biggest member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries of income. In May, he pulled out of a 2015 pact that eased sanctions in return for Iran slowing its nuclear program, describing the deal as “rotten to its core”.

(Source: Bloomberg)