UAE continues to sail oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, skirting Iranian blockade - report
Despite recent attacks, the UAE is working to avoid Iranian missile attacks by shutting off location trackers on their tankers, according to a Reuters report
In an effort to keep themselves safe from Iranian aggression in the Strait of Hormuz, the United Arab Emirates is getting creative. According to Reuters, while the amount of oil is decisively less, the UAE has successfully sailed several oil tankers loaded with crude through the Strait by turning off their automatic identification system transponders.
By turning off these location trackers, the UAE has reduced their chances of being spotted by Iranian forces, a tactic used by Iran to avoid US sanctions against their own oil shipments. This decision also makes it harder to track the total volume of exports through industry shipping data, which means the amount shipped in April could be higher than previously reported.
The UAE's actions come in contrast to those of other Gulf producers such as Iraq and Kuwait, which have either halted sales, deeply cut prices, or are only shipping through the Red Sea, like Saudi Arabia. Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has had to cut exports by more than 1 million barrels per day since the start of the war.
They have declined to comment on the shipments.
Nevertheless, Kpler data showed ADNOC's VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier) Hafeet loaded 2 million barrels inside the Gulf on April 7 and exited the strait on April 15. Outside the strait, the cargo was then transferred to the Greek-flagged VLCC Olympic Luck two days later and shipped to the Pengerang refinery in Malaysia. In another example, VLCC Aliakmon I loaded 2 million barrels of oil on April 27 and exited the strait on May 2, unloading at Oman's Ras Markaz storage terminal on May 3. Splitting up the oil between ships allows ADNOC to sell smaller cargoes and free up their larger tankers to move quickly back inside the Gulf to load more.
ADNOC continues to be adamant about selling oil from inside the strait and is holding talks with Asian refiners and an Indian refining source.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz as well as the U.S. blockade on Iranian exports has pushed global oil prices over $100 a barrel.