Three Saudi-flagged supertankers with six million barrels of crude onboard and other ships sailed through the Strait of Hormuz hours after US President Donald Trump signed a deal with Iran to end their war, ship tracking data showed yesterday.
Some 12.5m barrels of crude sailed through the Strait overnight, US Vice President JD Vance said.
The US military also said it has lifted its blockade of maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas.
Ships were broadcasting their positions as they sailed through the Strait of Hormuz yesterday, after weeks of concealing their voyages through the waterway by switching off their transponders.
The departures from Saudi ports were the most to go through the strait in weeks, according to Reuters analysis of shipping movements.
Opec’s largest producer has mainly used its Red Sea port terminal of Yanbu to ship out oil after the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz during the conflict.
Saudi Arabian shipping group Bahri, which manages the three tankers, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a further sign of traffic picking up, three separate crude tankers were loading oil around the UAE port of Fujairah outside the strait, with two already heading to Europe with cargoes, Kpler ship tracking data showed.
Fujairah had been among the terminals hit by Iran during the war, which started on February 28 when the US and Israel attacked it.
The US and Iran released the text of an interim agreement their presidents signed on Wednesday to end the war, though Trump threatened to resume attacks and kill Iranian officials if they failed to honour their commitments.
The Hong Kong-flagged Aframax tanker Tong Lin Wan, which loaded naphtha from Abu Dhabi’s Ruwais Refinery in early March and had remained inside the Gulf since then, passed through the strait yesterday, LSEG data showed.
The QatarEnergy-controlled liquefied natural gas tanker Mraikh also crossed the strait yesterday, LSEG and Kpler data showed. It loaded its cargo at Ras Laffan on June 12-13, and is set to deliver it to Port Qasim, Pakistan on June 18.
However, shipping and insurance industry officials remained cautious, seeking more assurances and details of the agreement.
Shippers say it will still take time for transit across the strait to reach pre-war levels, with a need yet to ensure safe access and clear mines.
INTERTANKO, which represents the world’s independent tanker owners, said the industry needed clarity on safety of navigation with mine clearance to start ‘at the earliest point’, adding that mine danger areas needed to be published.
It said ‘ships should be assured that they will no longer be subject to attack’.
&uuid=(email))