Three Oil, LNG Tankers Exit Hormuz with Transponders Off

Tankers Exit Hormuz with Transponders Off

Two supertankers and one LNG tanker exited the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week with their transponders switched off, heading for India and China, according to LSEG and Kpler shipping data. The vessels joined a number of tankers leaving the Gulf this month.

Voyages to India and China

The VLCC Eagle Veracruz, carrying 2 million barrels of crude from Saudi Arabia, is heading to Quanzhou port in China. Another VLCC, Nissos Keros, with 1.8 million barrels of Das crude from the UAE, is expected at Visakhapatnam port in India. The Chinese-flagged Hua Lin Wan, loaded with naphtha from Kuwait, is bound for Huizhou port.

LNG Tanker and Regional Impact

The LNG tanker Umm Al Ashtan, loaded from Das Island, is now off the coast of Oman sailing eastward, signaling for India. The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has severely curtailed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit route for roughly a fifth of the world's oil and LNG supply. Before the war, daily passages averaged 125-140; now traffic is limited. About 20,000 seafarers remain stranded on hundreds of ships in the Gulf.