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Eneos Endeavor\u2019s journey would make it only the second Japanese-owned supertanker to have crossed the chokepoint since the West Asia war started in late February | Image: Bloomberg<\/p>\n
2 min read Last Updated : May 14 2026 | 8:27 AM IST<\/p>\n
\n\tBy Weilun Soon<\/p>\n
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\n\tA Japanese supertanker has emerged in the Gulf of Oman after last signaling that it was inside the Persian Gulf, indicating a rare, undercover transit through the Strait of Hormuz by a vessel from the Asian country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\tThe Eneos Endeavor, a very large crude carrier, began transmitting its location north of the Omani capital Muscat late Wednesday, sailing east toward the Arabian Sea, ship-tracking data show. That came after the tanker\u2019s last signal showed that it was in the Persian Gulf, north of Abu Dhabi, on Monday. The gap in its transmissions suggests the ship sailed through Hormuz without broadcasting its movements.\u00a0
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\n\t\tEneos Endeavor had sailed into the Persian Gulf in late February to pick up crude from the United Arab Emirates\u2019 Das Island and Kuwait\u2019s Mina Al Ahmadi. Draft readings indicate that the vessel is nearly full with cargo. It originally indicated Japan\u2019s Kiire as a destination in late April, but now it is showing that it\u2019s waiting for orders, a sign that it has no clear port of call.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tThe tanker is listed as part of Japanese refiner Eneos Holdings Inc.\u2019s fleet, the company\u2019s website shows. A spokesperson for the company declined to comment, saying it doesn\u2019t disclose the operational status of vessels for safety reasons.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tEneos Endeavor\u2019s journey would make it only the second Japanese-owned supertanker to have crossed the chokepoint since the West Asia war started in late February. In late April, the Idemitsu Maru was the first Japanese VLCC to make the crossing, though it did so broadcasting its voyage. Japan\u2019s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi confirmed that a ship had made the passage, and added that Tokyo was urging Tehran to ensure free and safe transit for all vessels through the waterway.<\/p>\n
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First Published: May 14 2026 | 8:27 AM IST<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eneos Endeavor\u2019s journey would make it only the second Japanese-owned supertanker to have crossed the chokepoint since the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[22941,39123,444,5171,22467,39122,143,15230,26084,39,14750,101,6253],"class_list":{"0":"post-112863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-persian-gulf","8":"tag-crude-carrier","9":"tag-eneos-endeavor","10":"tag-gulf-of-oman","11":"tag-gulf-tensions","12":"tag-hormuz-transit","13":"tag-japanese-supertanker","14":"tag-maritime-security","15":"tag-oil-shipping-routes","16":"tag-oil-tanker-tracking","17":"tag-persian-gulf","18":"tag-ship-tracking-data","19":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","20":"tag-vlcc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116570830136375966","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112863","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=112863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}