Supertanker Agios Fanourios I is heading for Vietnam to discharge its Iraqi crude oil cargo after it was held by the US Navy for five days in the Gulf of Oman, the vessel’s manager said on Monday. <\/p>\n
The Maltese-flagged Very Large Crude Carrier sailed out of the Strait of Hormuz on May 10 and was sailing in the Gulf of Oman before making a \u200cU-turn on \u200cMay 11. <\/p>\n
It resumed its journey \u200ctoward \u2060Vietnam on May 16 \u2060and is expected to arrive at the Nghi Son refinery on May 30, LSEG shipping data showed. <\/p>\n
A VLCC can carry a maximum of two million barrels of oil. <\/p>\n
A source at the vessel’s Athens-based manager Eastern Mediterranean Maritime, who spoke on condition of \u2060anonymity, confirmed that the tanker was sailing \u200con to Vietnam after \u200cit had received US Navy approval. <\/p>\n
The US military’s Central Command \u200csaid last week that the vessel was redirected as \u200cpart of ongoing enforcement of the blockade against Iran. <\/p>\n
At least two other crude tankers sailed from the strait last week, but overall crude traffic through the strait has \u200cremained limited. <\/p>\n
Before the war on Iran began, the Strait of Hormuz was the conduit \u2060for 20% \u2060of the world’s energy supplies, equating to 125 to 140 daily passages. <\/p>\n
“Shipping confidence around Hormuz is still very weak,” ship broker Clarksons said in a note on Monday. <\/p>\n
A further 12 ships crossed the strait in the past 24 hours, including two liquefied petroleum gas tankers bound for India, according to satellite analysis from data analytics specialists SynMax. <\/p>\n
A separate LPG tanker was sailing through the strait on Monday also bound for India, data on the MarineTraffic platform showed. <\/p>\n