Iran isn’t wasting any time moving its oil out of the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. lifted the naval blockade outside the chokepoint and the U.S. and Iran discuss a framework on a lasting peace deal.
While Western shippers and insurers remain wary of the conflicting signals about how open the Strait of Hormuz really is, Iran is rushing to evacuate barrels it wasn’t able to push past the U.S. blockade over the past two months.
At least three supertankers, carrying a total of 6 million barrels of Iranian crude, moved to transit the Strait of Hormuz early on Monday, in open AIS navigation showing Singaporean waters as a destination, vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
That’s the most Iranian crude openly making its way out the key Iranian oil port at Kharg Island and into the Strait of Hormuz in a day since the war began on February 28, according to Bloomberg’s estimates.
The three tankers seen entering the Strait of Hormuz outbound on Monday were signaling destinations offshore Singapore, a known ship-to-ship (STS) transfer area for Iranian crude before loading on the tankers mostly bound for China’s independent refiners, the so-called teapots.
The surge in Iranian shipments out of the Gulf and into waters near the Malacca and Singapore Straits would give Iran a lifeline to boost its exports that had suffered from the U.S. blockade in the past few weeks.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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