At least three
Indian oil refiners and a global energy major plan to stop using
vessels on Iran’s new blacklist, including for ship-to-ship
transfers, due to security concerns, four sources with direct
knowledge of the matter said this week.
Tehran announced on Sunday a blacklist of 45 ships it said
had broken its rules for crossing the Strait of Hormuz, and
would take action against any vessels transferring loads with
them, escalating its threats over the key waterway for global
energy supplies six months into the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Iran’s announcement appears designed to impede the so-called
shuttle runs Gulf oil producers such as the United Arab Emirates
and Saudi Arabia have undertaken with dedicated tankers to move
oil from the Gulf through Hormuz for unloading through STS
transfers in the Gulf of Oman onto ships to end-users.
The shuttle runs have kept alive oil flows from the Middle
East that have been curtailed by Iran’s clampdown on shipping
through the strait because of the war.
The named vessels could be fined, detained and have their
cargoes confiscated, according to a post on social media website
X from the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, a new body set up by
Iran to manage the strait.
“We will avoid our chartered vessels dealing or STS or
anything to do with non-compliant ships for Middle Eastern
cargoes,” said one of the sources, who works at an Indian
refinery.
The sources declined to be identified because of the
sensitivity of the issue.
Some of the tankers Iran listed are owned or chartered by
Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC). The ships
have been used for shuttling crude, refined products and
liquefied natural gas (LNG) out of the Gulf for STS transfer off
Fujairah in the UAE or Sohar, Oman, according to shipping data.
Saudi Aramco and ADNOC declined to comment.
Ana Subasic, a trade risk analyst at shiptracking firm
Kpler, said the most compliance-sensitive buyers are expected to
avoid these vessels moving forward, but the trade is more likely
to reroute through alternative tonnage, counterparties or
transfer locations than disappear altogether.
Internal DIscussions
Several charterers and shipping firms are discussing
internally whether to continue their STS operations or not and
are evaluating Iran’s warning, multiple other trade and shipping
sources said, with one of them, a Gulf crude buyer, saying it
would be safer to buy oil on a delivered basis shipped to a
final destination instead of free-on-board at STS locations in
the Gulf of Oman.
Those sources also declined to be identified because of the
sensitivity of the matter.
“Our internal departments are still in discussion on how to
proceed with crude deliveries from the Strait of Hormuz via
ship-to-ship transfers in the long term,” said Formosa
Petrochemical Corp President KY Lin.
Iran has previously attacked several of the tankers,
including the Wedyan, Mombasa B and Al Bahyah.
Two of the 12 very large crude carriers on Iran’s blacklist
were no longer giving their location through their automatic
identification systems (AIS) by Tuesday after the list was
released, while the rest have had their AIS transponders
switched off for weeks.
“The key issue is contagion,” Kpler’s Subasic said.
“If Iran follows through on threats to penalize vessels that
conduct STS transfers with blacklisted tankers, that should
narrow the pool of willing shipowners, charterers and buyers,
particularly among firms with material Gulf exposure, while
increasing due-diligence requirements and potentially freight,
insurance and risk premia.”