Bloomberg: "HMM Tanker Attempts Hormuz Transit"...First 300,000-Ton VLCC

An oil tanker operated by HMM of South Korea is reportedly attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz.

Reuters Yonhap News

On May 20 (local time), Bloomberg News reported, citing vessel tracking data, that The Universal Winner, an HMM tanker carrying crude oil from Kuwait, began transmitting signals indicating its presence within the Strait of Hormuz earlier in the day.

This location is near the southern side of Iran’s Larak Island, on a route approved by Iran for passage through the Strait of Hormuz. If successful, this would mark the first instance of a Korean very large crude carrier (VLCC) with a capacity of 300,000 tons passing through the strait. The destination of the tanker is indicated as Ulsan.

Prior to this, it was reported that two Chinese VLCCs were also attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz. However, Bloomberg noted that it has not yet been confirmed whether these vessels successfully exited the strait.

If all three VLCCs succeed in safely passing through the Strait of Hormuz, it is expected to further boost the recent increase in crude oil shipments along this route over the past few days. Bloomberg also stated that this could be recorded as one of the days with the highest number of VLCC transits since the outbreak of war in the Middle East at the end of February.

The Ocean Lily, registered in Hong Kong, is owned by Able Best Development. This company shares the same Shanghai address and contact information as Sinochem Shipping Hainan, a subsidiary of China’s state-owned energy giant Sinochem. Sinochem Shipping Hainan is the ship manager of the Ocean Lily. The Yuan Gui Yang is owned and managed by COSCO Shipping Energy Transportation, a subsidiary of the state-backed COSCO Shipping Group.

Bloomberg added that HMM and the respective shipowners did not immediately respond to requests for comment via email.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.