Industry sources and maritime transport data say that the UAE and its customers have recently secretly moved many oil tankers across the Strait of Hormuz with GPS devices turned off to avoid the risk of Iranian attacks.
This activity is said to take place in the context of the Middle East conflict, which has trapped a large amount of oil in the Gulf region. Although the export volume only accounts for a small part compared to the usual level of the UAE before the US-Israel war with Iran, the move shows that producers and buyers are willing to take risks to release the blocked oil supply.
According to data from Kpler and satellite analysis by SynMax, Abu Dhabi National Petroleum Corporation (ADNOC) of the UAE in April exported at least 6 million barrels of oil on 4 oil tankers from ports within the Gulf region.
Reuters said this is the first time this export system has been announced. ADNOC declined to comment.
After the attacks by the US and Israel that began on February 28, Tehran almost blockaded the Strait of Hormuz for all Iran's non-oil exports. This development, along with the US blockade of Iranian ships, pushed world oil prices above the 100 USD/barrel mark.
Kpler data shows that DNAOC has had to cut more than 1 million barrels/day of oil exports since the outbreak of war, compared to 3.1 million barrels/day last year.
Oil tankers are said to be moving with the turned off AIS automatic identification system, in order to reduce the risk of being detected by Iranian forces. This is also a tactic Iran often uses to evade US oil sanctions.
According to Kpler, the ship VLCC Hafeet received 2 million barrels of oil on April 7 and left the Strait of Hormuz on April 15. After that, the shipment was transferred to the Greek-flagged Olympic Luck ship to be transported to a refinery in Asia.
Data also shows that the Aliakmon I ship transported 2 million barrels of oil to the Ras Markaz warehouse in Oman, while the two ships Odessa and Zouzou N transported a total of 2 million barrels of oil heading to South Korea.
Sources said that ADNOC wants to continue selling oil from inside the Strait of Hormuz and is negotiating with Asian refineries about oil shipments to be delivered in May.
