A Chinese supertanker carrying two million barrels of Iraqi crude sailed through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday after being stranded in the Persian Gulf for more than two months due to the US-Iran war, LSEG and Kpler ship-tracking data showed.
The very large crude carrier Yuan Hua Hu was seen heading to eastern China's Zhoushan port on Thursday and is expected to arrive on June 1, the data showed, after it briefly anchored off the Gulf of Oman, near where the US Navy set up a blockade on Iranian vessels on Wednesday.
The crossing comes as US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are due to meet over the next two days, and after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi visited Beijing last week.
The voyage marks the third known passage by a Chinese oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz since the US-Israeli war with Iran began on February 28, based on ship-tracking data.
Iran has appeared to tighten its control over the strait in recent days, cutting deals with Iraq and Pakistan to ship oil and liquefied natural gas from the region, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.
Other countries are exploring similar deals, sources said, in a move that could help entrench Tehran's control of the waterway.
The Chinese VLCC is owned and operated by COSCO Shipping Energy Transportation's Hainan unit and chartered by Unipec, the trading arm of Chinese state oil major Sinopec.
COSCO Shipping Energy Transportation and Sinopec did not immediately respond to requests for comments.
The Yuan Hua Hu loaded nearly two million barrels of Basrah Medium crude at Iraq's Basrah terminal in early March and has remained stranded inside the gulf until now, according to the tracking data. It is bound for Asia.
Chinese-flagged VLCCs Cospearl Lake and He Rong Hai exited the Strait of Hormuz on April 11.
A vehicle carrier, Xiang Jiang Kou, also sailed through the strait in the past 12 hours and broadcast a message on its AIS public transponder saying "Chinese vessel and crew", according to satellite analysis from data analytics specialists SynMax and separate data on the MarineTraffic platform.
The vessel was operated by Singapore registered group Xin Yin Chuang Yuan 6 Tiajin.
(Reporting by Siyi Liu and Florence Tan in Singapore; Additional reporting by Jonathan Saul; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Mark Potter)
