LONDON: Three supertankers transited the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, shipping data showed, marking what appeared to be the first vessels to exit the Gulf since a US-Iran ceasefire and as high-stakes talks between Washington and Tehran got under way in Pakistan.
Shipping data from LSEG indicated that the Liberia-flagged Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) Serifos and China-flagged VLCCs Cospearl Lake and He Rong Hai entered and exited the “Hormuz Passage trial anchorage”.
Each vessel is capable of carrying around two million barrels of oil.
Iran had effectively blocked the strategic waterway since the beginning of war on February 28, disrupting global energy supplies and driving oil prices sharply higher.
The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow shipping lane off Iran’s southern coast, handles around 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.
Its reopening was a key provision of the Pakistan-brokered ceasefire agreed earlier this week.
Data from LSEG and analytics firm Kpler showed that Serifos, carrying crude loaded in early March, is expected to arrive at Malaysia’s Malacca port on April 21.
Cospearl Lake and He Rong Hai vessels are chartered by Unipec, the trading arm of Chinese energy giant Sinopec, the LSEG data showed.
US-Iran talks underway in Islamabad
The movement of tankers coincided with the start of Pakistan-mediated talks between US and Iranian delegations in Islamabad.
Pakistan has urged both sides to “engage constructively” to end the conflict.
The US delegation is led by Vice President JD Vance, accompanied by senior officials including Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s advisor Jared Kushner.
Iran is represented by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, signalling high-level engagement from both sides.
