Kolkata: While a formula for lasting truce eludes the US-Iran war, the Strait of Hormuz remains substantially cut off to crude oil tankers and vessels carrying natural gas. Two vessels carrying LPG and bound for India have sailed past the troubled Strait of Hormuz, reports have stated. These are LPG carrier Symi and NV Sunshine. Meanwhile in China US president Donald Trump and Chinese premier Xi Jinping were engaged in talks amid widespread hopes that Beijing would be nudged to use its influence on Teheran to work towards a mutual acceptable peace accord to defuse the West Asia crisis that has triggered unprecedented energy crisis on a global scale, worse than both the oil shocks of the 1970s put together.
Vessels bound for mangalore and Kandla
NV Sunshine is loaded with LPG from the United Arab Emirates’ Ruwais refinery. It is heading towards Mangalore in India. Symi is transporting fuel from Qatar’s Ras Laffan port to Kandla in Gujarat.
The Strait of Hormuz has been consistently been in global headlines since 20% of the world’s shipments of crude oil and a significant share of natural gas passes through this waterway between Iran and Oman. Since hostilities broke out between the US and Iran, the latter quickly closed the strait to vessel movement, thereby turning the crude oil tap off for the global economy, using it as a lever to put pressure on Washington.
The US is blocking vessel movements to Iranian ports and coastal areas. It is using this strategy as a lever to counter Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The blockade targets commercial vessels entering Iran’s port.
Natural gas hit harder in the war than crude oil
Analysts are of the opinion that natural gas has been hit harded than crude oil during the US Iran war. The reason: a lot of natural gas fields and gas terminals have been hit since the war broke out. Moreover, gas requires supercooled and specialised vessels and handling terminals, which makes it impossible to store natural gas like crude oil.
It must also be mentioned that though the government has not yet raised the retail prices of petrol and diesel, it has raised the prices of both domestic LPG cylinders as well as commercial LPG cylinders.