(Bloomberg) — A Chinese oil supertanker appears to be sailing out of the Persian Gulf, a rare attempted crossing through the Strait of Hormuz just ahead of talks between US President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n
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Supertanker Yuan Hua Hu was seen moving through the waterway on Wednesday morning, past Iran\u2019s Larak island, on the eastern side of the waterway and heading south, ship-tracking data show. The vessel is owned and operated by units of China\u2019s Cosco Shipping, according to shipping database Equasis.<\/p>\n
The transit \u2014 which would be only the third by a Chinese very large crude carrier since the war began \u2014 comes at a delicate time. A long-awaited leaders\u2019 summit this week will touch on topics including the war in the Middle East and Beijing\u2019s perceived support for Tehran. China\u2019s private refiners have been major buyers of Iranian crude for years, providing a financial lifeline.<\/p>\n
While the US has vacillated in its stance on Iranian oil through the conflict, it has since cranked up pressure on the trade with China, sanctioning players including mega processor Hengli Petrochemical Dalian Refinery Co Ltd. The company has denied the allegations.<\/p>\n
The ship is currently signaling affiliation with Beijing by broadcasting its Chinese ownership and crew, a strategy widely used as a safety mechanism, especially among vessels using the Tehran-approved route through the strait.<\/p>\n
Yuan Hua Hu\u2019s draft indicates it\u2019s fully loaded with oil, or close to the vessel\u2019s 2 million barrel capacity. It was seen lifting from Iraq\u2019s Basrah terminal in early March, according to ship-tracking data.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear if the ship will successfully exit the Gulf, following erratic movements by other tankers including u-turns and failed crossings over the past days. Signals issued by ships in the area are often impacted by electronic interference, or spoofing, which can complicate monitoring and may misrepresent their locations.<\/p>\n
Captains can also turn off vessels\u2019 transponders for security reasons.<\/p>\n
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek<\/p>\n
\u00a92026 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Bloomberg) — A Chinese oil supertanker appears to be sailing out of the Persian Gulf, a rare attempted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1824,38398,102,39,864,101,986,22940],"class_list":{"0":"post-111239","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-strait-of-hormuz","8":"tag-bloomberg","9":"tag-chinas-cosco-shipping","10":"tag-hormuz","11":"tag-persian-gulf","12":"tag-president-donald-trump","13":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","14":"tag-xi-jinping","15":"tag-yuan-hua"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116565466353169385","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}