An empty Malta-flagged, Greece-managed oil products tanker halted at anchor in the Strait of Hormuz near Oman early on Monday as vessel owners and operators grow increasingly wary of attempting to transit the Strait in either direction following the re-escalation of hostilities.
The Kavomaleas oil products tanker signaled early on Monday that it is located in the Persian Gulf, at anchor and empty off tip of Oman’s Musandam Peninsula.
The tanker’s previous signal broadcast was in the Gulf of Oman early on Sunday local time, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, which suggests that the AIS tracking system was switched off when the vessel started to make its journey inbound into the Gulf. The Kavomaleas was chartered to pick up oil from within the Gulf, per tanker fixtures Bloomberg has seen.
Since the collapse of the ceasefire, most vessels attempting to brave the waters in the Strait of Hormuz have done so in the so-called dark mode with transponders off to avoid being detected.
Tanker operators have all but stopped attempts to transit the Strait since the hostilities returned more than a week ago, and Iran started attacking and harassing vessels in the Strait of Hormuz again.
Late last week, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy announced it had intercepted four ships attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. These ships had switched off their transponders, and two were “met with accidents and were stopped in their tracks,” the Revolutionary Guards said.
Tanker traffic at Hormuz has collapsed to a two-month low, reigniting fears of supply shortages amid peak summer oil demand.
On Monday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said it had received a report of an incident 8 nautical miles northwest of Kumzar, Oman.
“UKMTO have received information from a verified source that a vessel is on fire. The cause of the fire has not been verified as this time,” said UKMTO advising vessels “to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity to UKMTO while authorities investigate.”
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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