Mid-East oil producers continue exporting on tankers traveling with their transponders switched off: report
Middle East producers continue exporting oil on tankers traveling with their transponders switched off, even as visible traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has dwindled sharply, Reuters reported. This suggests that visible ship-tracking data does not capture all traffic. Industry trackers reported a dozen commodity vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, down from 35 the…
Oil still flows from Middle East producers via tankers navigating the Strait of Hormuz with their transponders disabled, despite a sharp decline in observable maritime traffic, Reuters reported. Industry trackers have documented a dozen cargo vessels passing through the Strait over the weekend, a significant drop from 35 vessels during the preceding weekend according to Kpler data.
Kpler monitors ships using transponder and satellite information. Ship-to-ship handovers maintain oil movement in the Gulf even as direct traffic between the Gulf and the Strait has plummeted to multi-month lows. The data suggests that the apparent revival in Hormuz tanker traffic might not accurately reflect the actual volumes of oil being transported.
Reuters cited a recent example where the VLCC Pinios transferred approximately 2 million barrels of Iraqi crude from Fujairah to another VLCC, New Constant, bound for China - an incident that went undetected by conventional ship-tracking systems. The same report highlighted that 22 tankers carrying around 42 million barrels left the Strait during the week of September 13, with Saudi Arabia responsible for roughly half and Iraq accounting for 35%.
Written by urgent.news from Gulf News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
