Crude oil ship heading to India diverted to China

Ping Shun, Iranian crude oil carrier, that had crossed the Strait of Hormuz and was signalling that it was heading to Vadinar, India, for the past three days is now signalling it is headed for China, as per marine logistics and commodity markets analytics firm Kpler.

The vessel that is carrying more than 1 lakh tonnes of crude oil is signalling that it is headed for Dongying in northern China, as per ship tracker websites.

As of now, Ping Shun is heading south off the west coast of India.

Ping Shun was sanctioned by the U.S. in February of this month. The sanctions notice says that the ship was involved in Pars crude oil through ship to ship transfers with the sanctioned National Iranian Tanker Company with the motive of obfuscating the oil’s Iranian origin. The tanker has delivered several shipments to China.

As per shipping database equasis, Ping Shun is owned and managed by companies located in Shandong, China. Shipping sources say that Ping Shun likely switched off its automatic identification system or was spoofing it while crossing the strait.

This would have been the first time in nearly seven years that India would have been buying Iranian oil. The U.S. had through a “general license” said that Iranian oil that had already been loaded as on March 20 would be allowed to be sold and delivered until April 19. But reports suggested that Indian customers were reluctant to take in Iranian crude over contractual terms. Sujata Sharma, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, had said at an official media briefing that purchase of Iranian oil are “all techno-commercial decisions taken by the oil marketing companies”.

Iran continues to be locked out of the global financial system due to U.S. sanctions, making payments difficult to process.

Meanwhile, Green Sanvi, an LPG tanker owned by the Indian operations of Mitsui OSK Ltd and registered in India, was crossing the Strait of Hormuz late on April 3. It would be the 7th Indian flagged LPG carrier crossing the strait and headed for India. Green Sanvi is carrying more than 46,000 tonnes of LPG.