Oil tankers divert away from Strait of Hormuz amid escalating tensions

Oil tanker

Some oil tankers reversed course away from the Strait of Hormuz amid growing uncertainty over whether Iran will take reprisal action in the vital waterway following US airstrikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities.

Coswisdom Lake, a very large crude carrier (VLCC) supertanker, reached the strait on Sunday before making a U-turn and heading south, Reuters reported today, June 23, citing ship-tracking data.

Moreover, the South Loyalty, also a VLCC, changed direction and sailed outside the strait on Monday. It was scheduled to load crude from Iraq's Basra terminal, according to Kpler data.

The Coswisdom Lake was scheduled to load crude at Zirku for delivery to China. It was chartered by Unipec, a trading arm of China's state-run Sinopec, LSEG and Kpler data showed.