Two tankers bound for India sailed through the Strait of Hormuz yesterday, as US President Donald Trump threatened to attack Iran’s power plants.
The two India-flagged tankers were carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) used mostly for cooking in India. They loaded at anchorages in Kuwait and the UAE, LSEG ship-tracking data showed.
The Pine Gas, which loaded in UAE waters, sailed through the strait followed by the Jag Vasant carrying LPG from Kuwait, ship-tracking data on the MarineTraffic platform showed.
Hundreds of vessels have dropped anchor in and outside of the Gulf, cutting off food and other vital imports and energy exports, mostly to Asia and Europe.
India’s Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, confirmed that the two tankers, carrying more than 92,000 tonnes of LPG, had sailed through Hormuz and were expected to reach ports in India around Thursday.
The Pine Gas broadcast a message identifying itself as ‘India ship and crew’, LSEG ship-tracking data showed.
Some 20,000 seafarers remain stranded inside the Gulf, according to the UN’s shipping agency.
Iran yesterday threatened to lay sea mines if Trump followed through with attacks, state media reported, while suggesting non-belligerent states might co-ordinate passage with Iran, leaving analysts remaining cautious.
“Iran is assessed highly likely still capable of damaging shipping transiting the Strait of Hormuz,” British maritime security group Ambrey said in a note.
There remains a ‘heightened risk of miscalculation in congested waterways’, the US Navy-led Joint Maritime Information Centre said in an advisory.
On Sunday, a tanker carrying oil products also passed through the strait bound for India, Kpler data showed.
Disruption to tanker traffic through the strait has cut the world’s supply of oil and oil products by some 20 per cent.
“Three weeks into the Hormuz shutdown, crude tanker markets remain distorted,” shipbroker Clarksons said yesterday.