The Philippines received an Iranian crude cargo this month, ship-tracking data shows, likely the country's first since the Iran war disrupted supplies from the Middle East.
The Suezmax tanker Ocean Start delivered Iranian crude to Petron's Bataan refinery on May 17, according to data from Kpler. The tanker is capable of carrying one million barrels of oil.
The Ocean Start received the cargo in early May through a ship-to-ship (STS) transfer in waters off Singapore with another Suezmax tanker Kylo, which loaded the crude at Iran's Kharg Island on March 27, the data showed.
Kpler data indicated that this was the first Iranian crude delivery to the Philippines. Another analytics firm, Vortexa, also identified the cargo as Iranian crude delivered to the Petron refinery following an STS transfer.
Petron, the country's largest oil company, did not respond to a request for comment.
The Trump administration granted a 30-day waiver on sanctions related to purchases of Iranian oil at sea from March 20 to April 19, in a bid to ease oil prices that had surged following the US-Israeli conflict with Iran.
The Philippines, which relies heavily on Middle Eastern crude imports, also received a US waiver to purchase Russian crude oil and petroleum products, the country's energy department said in late April.
(Reporting by Florence Tan and Siyi Liu in Singapore; Additional reporting by Karen Lema in Manila; Editing by Helen Popper )
