A Greek-operated oil tanker has sailed through the Strait of Hormuz with a cargo of Saudi Arabian crude and its destination listed as India, analysis from ship tracking platform Kpler showed on Monday.
Hundreds of ships remain anchored on both sides of the strait amid the US-Israel war with Iran, with oil and shipping markets looking for any indication of sailings picking up through the critical waterway through which much of the world’s oil passes.
The Suezmax tanker Shenlong, with a capacity of one million barrels, loaded crude in the Saudi port of Ras Tanura, separate ship tracking data on the MarineTraffic platform showed.
It last recorded its position inside the strait on March 8 before updating its position as sailing to the Indian port of Mumbai, according to the data.
The vessel's Athens-based manager Dynacom did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Oil prices surged to more than $119 a barrel on Monday, hitting levels not seen since mid-2022 as some Gulf producers cut supplies and fears of prolonged shipping disruption gripped the market.
"All parties without exception, and I repeat, without exception, must respect the freedom of navigation," Arsenio Dominguez, Secretary-General of the impotent International Maritime Organisation (IMO), the United Nations' shipping agency, said on Monday.
"I must express my grave concern regarding the recent attacks on merchant vessels in the region of the Strait of Hormuz," he told an IMO meeting in London.
Two oil products tankers with links to Iran made separate voyages through Hormuz in recent days, according to analysis from Kpler. At least five tankers laden with around 11 million barrels of crude have left Iranian ports since airstrikes on Iran began on February 28, with liquefied petroleum gas supplies also moving, ship trackers and traders said on Friday.
Four separate supertankers, each carrying two million barrels of oil and operated by Iranian tanker group NITC - which is under sanctions and linked to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards - arrived in waters around Singapore on Monday after sailing from Iran before February 28, according to analysis from US advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran, which monitors Iran-related tanker traffic through ship and satellite tracking.
(Reporting by Jonathan Saul and Renee Maltezou; Editing by Jan Harvey, Kirsten Donovan)