Iran will find ways to deal with new US measures targeting its economy and oil industry, National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) chief Hamid Bovard said, as Washington ramps up pressure on Tehran in what US officials have called an “Economic D-Day”.

“We will certainly find solutions in the oil sector for whatever actions the enemy takes, as we have done so far,” Bovard, also Iran’s deputy oil minister, told Fars News Agency. “We will neither lose our way nor sit idle. We will certainly have our own plans in proportion to the enemy’s actions.”

Bovard said Iran’s oil production and exports remained “in their proper place” despite an ongoing US naval blockade affecting Iranian ports and vessels in the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean.

He contrasted Iran’s position with neighbouring Persian Gulf countries, saying many of their oil operations had been disrupted due to difficulties in the Strait of Hormuz.

His comments came after President Masoud Pezeshkian and central bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati said Iranian oil exports had stopped because of the US naval blockade.

The administration of US President Donald Trump on August 24 expanded secondary sanctions on entities and buyers doing business with Iran, as Washington seeks to bring economic pressure on Tehran to a peak.

A source familiar with the matter told Reuters the move was a final warning to cut commercial ties with Tehran and end a six-month conflict that began with US and Israeli attacks on Iran in late February and has blocked energy exports through the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump last week called the campaign the “most economically devastating operation” ever imposed on a country and described it as “Economic D-Day”, a reference to the Allied invasion of Normandy in World War Two.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on August 24 warned countries buying Iranian oil of an “Economic D-Day” punishment. Analysts said the message was aimed particularly at China, Iran’s biggest oil customer.

“We are level-setting with every country to tell them our expectations,” Bessent said on Monday. “We know who they are. They know who they are.”

More than 80% of Iran’s seaborne oil exports go to China, much of it to small independent refineries in eastern Shandong province. Kpler estimates Iranian oil exports to China fell to about 534,000 barrels per day in August, from 823,000 bpd in July and about 1.58mn bpd at a point earlier this year.

The US Treasury also added digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping to sectors subject to Iran-related sanctions. Nearly 60 people, companies and vessels were also sanctioned over alleged roles in missile and nuclear programmes, cyber operations, oil exports and the transfer of oil revenues.