Philippines Receives First Iranian Crude Cargo Since Hormuz Blockade

The Philippines has received its first cargo of Iranian crude, Reuters reported on Friday, citing tanker-tracking data from Kpler and Vortexa.

A Suezmax vessel capable of carrying up to 1 million barrels of crude that departed from Iran’s Kharg Island in late March made a ship-to-ship transfer offshore Singapore onto another tanker, which delivered the oil to the Bataan refinery in the Philippines in the middle of May, according to the data.

The delivery was the first Iranian cargo to the Philippines, which is one of the Asian countries worst hit by the world’s biggest oil supply disruption.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in mid-March issued a general license, which basically authorized until April 19 imports of Iranian crude loaded on vessels as of March 20.

Southeast Asian economies such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam were the first to feel fuel shortages after the blocked Strait of Hormuz cut off most of their regular crude and fuel supply from the Middle East.

The Philippines, which sourced 98% of all its oil from the Middle East before the war, declared a national energy emergency as early as in the middle of March.

Many of the Southeast Asian countries have turned to alternative suppliers, including Russian oil, which is now allowed for unsanctioned sale by the U.S. Treasury until the middle of June, following several one-month renewals of waivers for Russian oil already loaded on tankers.

In addition, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) looks to ratify a petroleum security agreement, Philippine Trade Secretary Cristina Roque said last month, as Asian nations are reeling from the shock oil supply crisis amid the Middle East war.

Amid the fuel crisis and shortages, spiking prices, and accelerating inflation, ASEAN would look to ratify the pact for oil sharing, which is aimed at strengthening energy security and resilience to shocks in the region, the Philippine official said.

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