Japanese Refiners Buy Middle East Crude Through Ship-to-Ship Transfers

Several Japanese oil tankers are returning to the Middle East to pick up crude cargoes for Japan’s refineries, but none of these are moving into the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz. Instead, a rising number of Japan-owned or Japan-bound tankers – most of which have steered clear of the Middle East since the Iran war began – are returning to waters in the Gulf of Oman to participate in ship-to-ship (STS) transfers offshore Oman or Fujairah, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, quoting shipbrokers and tanker-tracking data. For the better part of seven months, Japan-linked tankers – those that weren’t trapped behind the Strait of Hormuz – avoided the Middle East region and picked up cargoes in STS transfers offshore India or Southeast Asia. The vessels that were trapped managed to exit the Persian Gulf in the June-July window of the three-week-long U.S.-Iran ceasefire when the Strait of Hormuz was mostly open to all traffic. Now some of the Japan-linked vessels are back to the Middle East, but not to venture into the Persian Gulf via Hormuz.