An oil tanker carrying sorely needed petroleum for India has cleared the Strait of Hormuz, according to several sites that track maritime traffic. An India-bound oil tanker, Nissos Keros, has successfully crossed the Strait of Hormuz and is en route to Visakhapatnam, with an expected arrival on June 3. The Marshall Islands-flagged vessel departed Sharjah on May 21 and was tracked in the northern Arabian Sea off India’s west coast this morning.
Iran’s news agency reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy had facilitated the passage of 23 commercial vessels through the strait in 24 hours, amid ongoing tensions over proposed transit fees by Tehran. Iran has proposed regulating maritime traffic via a new authority, while the United Nations maintains that imposing transit fees in international waters is illegal. The United States, led by Donald Trump, has called for free navigation through the strategic waterway, which handles a significant share of global oil and gas shipments. Iran’s actions have effectively tightened control over a critical global energy chokepoint, through which nearly 20% of the world’s oil and gas shipments pass, triggering a wider energy crunch and economic disruption.