Two tankers that were heading to Africa have changed course and are now moving to the Middle East, Bloomberg reported today, citing ship-tracking data.
One of the tankers, a Suezmax, which was originally sailing for Gabon, is now signaling its destination as Fujairah, the UAE port just outside the Strait of Hormuz, Bloomberg said. The other vessel, a very large crude carrier, was originally en route to South Africa but is now also signaling Fujairah as its destination.
News about a peace deal between the United States and Iran in the making sent oil prices tumbling earlier this week but uncertainty about actual progress and the timeline for normalization of tanker flows via the Strait of Hormuz capped gains. Even so, reports about tanker and LNG vessel movements suggest a strong degree of optimism in the industry.
Meanwhile, oil tanker owners and operators are cautiously optimistic, but they will wait until they see a “material” agreement and safety guarantees before returning to the world’s critical oil and gas chokepoint, Jotaro Tamura, chief executive officer at Mitsui OSK Lines, the world’s largest tanker operator, told the Financial Times earlier this week.
“Given the experiences in the last couple of months, I think it’s reasonable to assume that it may take at least a couple of weeks or if not a month,” Tamura told FT in an interview published on Tuesday.
“What will have to come in place is not just a simple agreement between the relevant countries, but it has to be material and translated into the real situations in the Strait of Hormuz, so that shipping lines can make themselves comfortable to go through,” the executive added.
On the other hand, the chief executive of Frontline earlier this month told CNBC he expected a quick rebound in tanker traffic once Hormuz reopens. “I’m actually very optimistic the minute the tide turns, and the U.S. and Iran have found some sort of agreement, at least not to attack shipping, that those transits are going to resume pretty quickly,” Lars Barstad said.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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