(Bloomberg) — A Chinese supertanker appears to have left the Strait of Hormuz and headed toward an area where the United States has imposed a blockade, ahead of talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
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Ship tracking data showed that the supertanker Yuanhua Lake passed through the waterway on Wednesday, passing Iran’s Larak Island and entering the Gulf of Oman. The vessel is owned and operated by a subsidiary of China Ocean Shipping Lines, according to shipping database Equasis.
The transit, the third by a Chinese VLCC since the war began, comes at a delicate moment. This week’s long-awaited leaders’ summit will touch on topics such as wars in the Middle East and Beijing’s support for Tehran. China’s private refineries have been major buyers of Iranian crude for years, providing a financial lifeline.
While the U.S. has wavered on its stance on Iranian oil in the conflict, it has since stepped up trade pressure on China, sanctioning players including major processor Hengli Petrochemical Dalian Refining Co. The company denies the accusations.
The ship is currently signaling the port of Zhoushan in China as its next destination. It had earlier asserted its ties with Beijing by declaring its ownership and crew to be Chinese, a tactic widely used as a security mechanism, especially for ships passing through the Larak Strait using Tehran-approved routes.
The Yuan Hua Hu’s draft suggests it is fully loaded with oil, or close to the ship’s 2 million barrel capacity. The ship was seen lifting from a dock in Basra, Iraq, in early March, according to ship tracking data. The vessel is chartered by Unipec, the trading arm of Chinese state-owned refining giant Sinopec, according to a firm contract seen by Bloomberg.
It was unclear whether the ship would be able to get through the U.S. blockade in the area surrounding the Gulf of Oman where it meets the Arabian Sea. In recent days, other tankers have been observed making erratic movements, including U-turns and crossing failures. Signals from ships in the region are often affected by electronic jamming or spoofing, which complicates monitoring and can distort their location.
For safety reasons, the captain can also turn off the ship’s transponder.
(Updates vessel’s apparent position and its reported charterer.)
