SEATTLE (Oil Monster): Two supertankers and one liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker exited the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week with their transponders switched off, and are heading for India and China, shipping data from LSEG and Kpler showed.
The vessels joined a number of tankers leaving the Gulf this month, although oil and LNG traffic overall has still been limited.
The Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) Eagle Veracruz, carrying 2 million barrels of crude loaded from Saudi Arabia in late February, is heading to Quanzhou port in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian. The VLCC is expected to arrive at the port where Sinochem's refinery is located on June 16.
AET Tankers, which owns and manages Eagle Veracruz, and Sinochem did not immediately respond to requests for comments.
The Eagle Veracruz was one of the seven ships that Malaysia had asked permission from Iran to clear, sources told Reuters earlier.
Another VLCC, Nissos Keros, carrying about 1.8 million barrels of Das crude from the United Arab Emirates, is expected to arrive at the Indian port of Visakhapatnam on June 3, where Hindustan Petroleum's refinery is located.
Vitol, which chartered the Nissos Keros, and Kylades Maritime, the manager of the tanker, did not immediately respond to requests for comments outside of office hours.
Kpler data showed that the two supertankers exited the strait on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the Chinese-flagged Hua Lin Wan, operated by Chinese shipping group COSCO, exited the strait. The tanker, carrying naphtha loaded from Kuwait in early March, is expected to reach Huizhou port in southern Guangdong province on June 12.
Separately, LNG tanker Umm Al Ashtan was last seen in ballast on shiptracking data off the coast of the United Arab Emirates on May 1, according to Kpler and LSEG data.
It reappeared on ship-tracking data on May 27 loaded with a cargo from Das Island, and is now off the coast of Oman, sailing eastward, signalling for India.
ADNOC, which is listed as the manager for the Umm Al Ashtan tanker, declined to comment on the position, movements or routing of its vessels, citing company policy.
The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran that began on February 28 has severely curtailed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit route for roughly a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas supply.
Before the war began, shipping traffic through the strait averaged 125 to 140 daily passages. About 20,000 seafarers remain stranded on hundreds of ships in the Gulf.
Courtesy: www.reuters.com
