Two tankers carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), the key cooking fuel in India, appear to have made the Strait of Hormuz transit with transponders off on part of the route as dark activity rises among commercial shipping and a growing number of vessels exit the chokepoint.
The Marshall Islands-flagged Symi LPG tanker appeared in the Gulf of Oman early on Thursday and is en route to Kandla, a port in western India, data on MarineTraffic showed.
The vessel had departed Ras Laffan in Qatar more than two months ago, on March 6, according to the data.
Since early March, hundreds of vessels, including tankers carrying energy commodities, have been stranded in the Persian Gulf west of the Strait of Hormuz amid the de facto closure of the chokepoint.
The Symi appeared in the Gulf of Oman broadcasting its signal and destination after having switched off its positioning earlier, Bloomberg reports.
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Another LPG tanker, Vietnam-flagged NV Sunshine, is also bound for India and went dark just after clearing the Strait of Hormuz, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The two India-bound LPG tankers add to a growing number of vessels that have passed the Strait of Hormuz in recent days despite the stalemate in U.S.-Iran talks to end the war.
These vessels are also the latest LPG carriers to have made it out of the Strait and now going to India, which relied on the Strait of Hormuz flows for 90% of all its LPG imports before the war.
The tankers are also the latest to have switched off their positioning signals as commercial shipping is increasingly using dark mode for part of the journey around the Strait of Hormuz, to avoid being easily spotted or targeted.
Last week, at least three supertankers laden with crude oil successfully exited the Strait of Hormuz, carrying Iraqi and Emirati oil, with transponders off to avoid detection.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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