DUBAI: Two liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers transited the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, bound for Pakistan and China, while a supertanker carrying Iraqi crude to China departed the Gulf on Saturday after being stuck for nearly three months, according to Reuters.
The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, which began Feb. 28, has severely restricted maritime traffic through the strait, a chokepoint through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and LNG supply typically flows.
The LNG carrier Al Rayyan, loaded at Qatar’s Ras Laffan facility and last seen in the Gulf on May 22, has now exited the strait between Iran and Oman, according to data from LSEG and Kpler. The vessel is scheduled to discharge its cargo in China on June 27.
Qatar Energy, which owns the Al Rayyan, did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside business hours.
Separately, the very large crude carrier Eagle Verona left the strait on Saturday and is expected to arrive at Ningbo port in eastern China on June 12 to offload its cargo, LSEG and Kpler data show.
The Singapore-flagged vessel, chartered by Unipec, the trading arm of Asia’s largest refiner, Sinopec, loaded nearly 2 million barrels of Basrah crude around Feb. 26, according to the data.
The Eagle Verona was among seven ships for which Malaysia sought permission from Iran to transit, two sources previously told Reuters. Five of those vessels have since exited the waterway; two remain in the Gulf.
Sinopec and Malaysian state shipper MISC, which owns the vessel, could not be immediately reached for comment.
Before the war began, daily shipping traffic through the strait averaged 125 to 140 transits. An estimated 20,000 seafarers remain stranded inside the Gulf aboard hundreds of ships.
