A Pakistani flagged tanker had entered the Persian Gulf over the weekend and has become the first carrier to exit safely through the Strait of Hormuz with a crude cargo since the naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz initiated by the U.S. began on last Monday. Laying the importance is how limited traffic through the vital choke point is passing through.
The Shalamar sailed just south of Iran’s Larak Island and out into the Gulf of Oman late Thursday with around 450,000 barrels of crude loaded at Das Island in the United Arab Emirates, according to a ship tracking data.
The tanker, only half full, is signaling Karachi as its destination. Transits through the narrow waterway have been mostly scarce since the U.S. and Israel war with Iran began at the end of February and Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation. The traffic at the choke point has returned to those low levels. A U.S. Navy blockade now requires ship owners to clear both the Iranian and American authorities in order to move oil and goods from the Persian Gulf to the world.
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A group of three supertankers laden with non-Iranian crude made it out last week and few others with such cargoes have crossed Hormuz over the past seven weeks even before the U.S. warships closed in. Iran’s fleet had continued to pass through, transporting nearly 1.7 million barrels per day of crude exports in March throughout its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
That flow has now largely stopped as both sides consider a fresh round of negotiations. Shalamar, the Pakistani tanker, first attempted to cross Hormuz into the Persian Gulf on Sunday, but it U-turned at peace talks between Iran and the U.S. broke down. It made the passage a few hours later headed for the UAE’s Das Island.
Then came a U.S. blockade of the Iran’s coastline announced by the President Donald Trump from Monday that left ship owners to reassess their decision to cross the choke point. Shalimar then began to head east on Thursday and is currently in Gulf of Oman heading into the Arabian Sea.
The blockade stretches from the Omani coastline near Ras al-Hadd northeast to the Iran-Pakistani border, according to a map shown in an online video shared by the naval unit on Thursday. Shalamar is owned and managed by Pakistan National Shipping Corporation, maritime database Equasis shows.
