Iran has secretly amassed significant reserves – as much as 50 million barrels – of processed oil on tankers in the Persian Gulf, which Tehran is ready to export as soon as international sanctions are lifted, CNN reported Thursday.

Iran claims it’s not stockpiling oil in tankers in the Persian Gulf, but no one believes it. Up until recently, energy experts thought Iran’s vessels held 30 million to 40 million barrels of oil.

But maritime surveillance firm Windward has harnessed sophisticated technology to determine Iran is actually hoarding 50 million barrels of oil. That’s up nearly 150% from April 2014 when Windward started tracking this closely-watched metric. …

The larger estimate of Iran’s floating oil stockpile is more evidence that the world has far more oil than it needs, especially given the slowdown in demand and turbulence in China.

“That means when sanctions are lifted, there is going to be a flood of crude hitting the market because boy could they use the money,” said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service.

Windward is an Israeli-based company that tracks oil being openly and covertly stored in the Gulf. According to CNN, when sanctions on Iran are lifted, the oil can be shipped immediately, most likely to a buyer in Asia.

Even with sanctions in place, Iran has violated export limits on oil that were set out in the Joint Plan of Action, which Tehran signed in November of 2013.

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