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Oil tanker halts in Strait of Hormuz as operators avoid transit
An empty, Malta-flagged, Greece-managed products tanker anchored near Oman early Monday, while many vessels have reduced Strait of Hormuz transits amid renewed hostilities and transponder shutdowns.
An empty oil products tanker halted at anchor in the Strait of Hormuz near Oman early Monday, reflecting heightened caution among operators as tensions between Iran and other parties have re-escalated, OilPrice reported.
The Malta-flagged, Greece-managed tanker, named Kavomaleas, signaled that it was located in the Persian Gulf, at anchor and empty off the tip of Oman’s Musandam Peninsula. Data compiled by Bloomberg cited in the report showed the vessel’s previous signal in the Gulf of Oman on Sunday local time, suggesting its AIS tracking was switched off when it began an inbound journey.
According to OilPrice, the tanker was chartered to pick up oil within the Gulf, based on tanker fixtures Bloomberg has seen. Since the ceasefire collapsed, most vessels attempting to navigate the Strait have used transponders turned off, sometimes described as operating in “dark mode,” to avoid detection.
Tanker operators have largely stopped attempts to transit the Strait since hostilities returned more than a week ago, OilPrice said. The report also referenced Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy announcing it intercepted four ships attempting to pass through the Strait, with the Guards saying two were “met with accidents and were stopped in their tracks.”