An India-bound tanker carrying 45,000 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday (2 May), marking the first such transit by an India-linked vessel in two weeks.
The Marshall Islands-flagged Sarv Shakti navigated past Iran’s Larak and Qeshm islands towards the Gulf of Oman, with 18 Indian nationals among its 20 crew members.
The vessel is expected to reach Visakhapatnam by 13 May.
The crossing represents a rare breakthrough as shipping traffic through the strait has plummeted to roughly 5 per cent of pre-war levels following a US blockade targeting Iran-affiliated vessels.
Maritime data shows only few ships crossed the waterway recently, compared to more than 100 daily transits before the conflict began in late February.
The strait, through which 20 per cent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically flows, has been effectively closed since Iran and the US began military operations.
India, the world’s third-largest oil importer and second-biggest consumer of LPG, has been grappling with acute shortages of cooking fuel.
Around 60 per cent of the country’s LPG demand comes from imports, with 90 per cent of those shipments transiting through Hormuz.
The crisis has triggered panic buying, lengthy queues at distribution centres, and forced restaurants to remove items from menus as commercial gas supplies were diverted to households.
India has managed to move eight LPG vessels through Hormuz during the ongoing conflict following bilateral negotiations with Tehran.
The country has simultaneously ramped up domestic production by 60 per cent to 54,000 tonnes daily, though this remains well short of the 80,000 tonnes consumed each day.
Indian Oil Corporation has been identified as the buyer of the Sarv Shakti’s cargo, which entered the Persian Gulf in early February and loaded its LPG through a ship-to-ship transfer near Dubai.