A tanker ship passed through the Strait of Hormuz headed for China on Monday — the first shipment of natural gas to successfully exit the Persian Gulf since the start of the war with Iran.
Liquefied natural gas tanker Mubaraz, loaded with more than 130,000 cubic meters of gas from the United Arab Emirates, had been loitering in the contested waterway when its transponder went off in late March, according to financial data provider LSEG.
The signal finally reappeared Monday west of the Indian coast, indicating it had managed to navigate the Strait of Hormuz, through which passes 20% of the world’s natural oil and gas supplies, reported the Wall Street Journal.
The ship is now en route to Tianjin, northern China, according to ship-tracker MarineTraffic.
Mubaraz has become the first full gas tanker to successfully navigate the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the Iran war. National Gas Shipping Co The Mubaraz is managed by a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi’s state-owned oil company, ADNOC.
Earlier in April, an empty gas tanker crossed the Strait of Hormuz after spending weeks idling south of Pakistan.
More than a dozen gas tankers are still trapped inside the Persian Gulf, according to analysts.
The ship is now west of India, after turning its signal off in late March. Marine Traffic data Last week, the number of ships passing through the Strait fell to its lowest level since the start of the war on Feb. 28, after the US blockaded the waterway to top Iranian-linked tankers.
Iran has previously threatened and attacked commercial ships that tried to pass through Hormuz without paying a toll.
Just 35 transits were made in the week of April 20 to April 26, down from 78 the previous week, according to data from Lloyd’s List Intelligence.
Of the 35 ships, 24 were linked to Iranian trade, including 16 involving vessels belonging to the Islamic regime’s sanction-evading shadow fleet.
Before the war, some 130 ships crossed the Strait every day to reach markets, particularly those in Asia.
It comes as Iran renewed its attacks on commercial ships on April 19, a week after the US blockade began.
Lloyd’s numbers only include large cargo ships of more than 10,000 tons.
