Balochistan’s dangerous fuel trade is a lifeline. The Iran war is choking it

AI Summary

The war involving Iran is disrupting the vital yet illicit fuel trade between Iran and Pakistan’s Balochistan province, threatening the local economy and livelihoods dependent on informal fuel imports through coastal routes near the Iran-Pakistan border.

Balochistan’s dangerous fuel trade is a lifeline. The Iran war is choking it Hazaran on Tue, 08/11/2026 - 18:13 The war is wreaking havoc on the illicit, yet vital, trade of importing fuel from Iran into Pakistan's Balochistan province A fuel fire engulfs boats at Kuntani Hor in Balochistan, Pakistan, sending thick black smoke into the sky as workers watch from nearby (Hazaran/Changeez Nazir/MEE) Off About 150 kilometres west of Gwadar, the port city often described as the heart of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), lies Kuntani Hor, a small creek near the Iranian border on Balochistan’s remote and picturesque Makran coast. The creek is one of the spots along the border where "informal" trade between Iran and Pakistan takes place, with boats bringing Iranian petrol, diesel and other goods into Pakistan. The trade is, for all intents and purposes, smuggling. But it has become so foundational to the local economy that, in April of this year, Balochistan’s provincial government even set the price per litre at which fuel from this trade could be sold. The policy set a price below that of government-imported fuel and outlawed it from being sold outside the province. When the trade is active, thousands of labourers, drivers, boat crews, and depot workers from Balochistan and other parts of Pakistan depend on Kuntani for their livelihoods. Workers, boats, and vehicles gather at Kuntani Hor, one of the sides of the creek where Iranian fuel is unloaded into Pakistan’s informal network (Hazaran/Changeez Nazir/MEE) (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); It was into this economy that Siraj, a 26-year-old anthropology graduate from Panjgur, came looking for stable income that his university degree failed to provide. Siraj had twice returned to his hometown of Paroom with less than he had hoped for. The first time, arriving with a degree in anthropology from Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad. Reaching one of Pakistan’s leading universities meant travelling hundreds of kilometres from his remote hometown in Panjgur district, near the Iranian border. He believed the degree would lead to stable work. But that turned out to be false hope. Then, after his father died, he could no longer afford to wait for government vacancies that attract thousands of applicants per position. So he decided to travel south to Kuntani Hor, near Jiwani on Pakistan’s southwestern coast. The second time Siraj returned to Paroom, he carried neither the promise of a degree nor the wages on which his family had come to depend. The US-Israeli war on Iran had sharply disrupted the movement of fuel, bringing much of the work at Kuntani Hor to a standstill. 'Every day was another chance to earn, but also another chance to die' - Mohammad Asif, worker in the informal fuel trade The war began on 28 February, when Israel and the US launched strikes on Iran, opening another full-scale confrontation after the 12-day Israel-Iran war of June 2025.  Iran retaliated with strikes on Israel and US military installations across the region, most prominently in the Gulf states. The fighting subsequently reached Iranian ports, coastal defences and shipping routes around the Strait of Hormuz. By July, thousands of people had been killed and millions displaced, mainly in Iran and Lebanon. Along Pakistan’s not-so-distant coast, the war arrived not through an air strike but through the disappearance of this informal coastal economy. Although formal trade continued through some Pakistan-Iran crossings during the early weeks of the conflict, supplies of Iranian petrol and diesel fell. In May, fuel dealers said the border closure at Kuntani Hor had pushed the price of Iranian petrol in Gwadar up by 30 to 40 Pakistani rupees (11-14 cents) a litre. For Siraj and thousands of others, the consequences were immediate and dire. An economy built around fuel Bakshi Baloch, from the coastal town of Pasni, runs a fuel depot at Kuntani Hor. Under normal circumstances, he said, around 50 people depend directly on his operation. These include an accountant, labourers who unload the fuel, boat crews, and others who move the barrels between the shore and the depot. Bakshi estimated that more than 5,000 depots had operated around Kuntani Hor, each supporting dozens of people. The figure could not be independently verified by Middle East Eye, but the rows of depots and the variety of workers involved reveal an economy that extends far beyond a few boat owners or fuel dealers. Workers stand beside pickups loaded with fuel containers at Kuntani Hor, while rows of motorcycle transporters gather in the distance (Hazaran/Changeez Nazir/MEE) Bakshi, too, has now returned home. Almost every day, he said he gets voice notes from former work