28 Vessels Cross Hormuz Strait Ahead of US Blockade Threat

A total of 28 vessels have crossed or are transiting the Strait of Hormuz since Saturday ahead of the threat of a U.S. military blockade, with 16 ships entering and 12 vessels exiting the Middle East Gulf via the strategic chokepoint, according to ship-tracking data from Kpler.

Seven vessels exited the Gulf through the Strait on Saturday and five on Sunday, just ahead of the U.S. Central Command or CENTCOM announcement of a blockade on all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports, set to begin Monday at 10 a.m. Eastern Time.

“No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas,” U.S. President Donald Trump said on his Truth Social account on Sunday.

The move follows the collapse of U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks held in Pakistan, which ended without an agreement.

On Friday, eight vessels transited the Hormuz Strait, five of them exiting the Middle East Gulf.

According to Kpler data, three oil and oil product tankers exited the Middle East Gulf over the weekend.

April 12 Transit:

* The 46,719-dwt Epik, loaded with 323,667 bbl of naphtha from Hamriyah Oil Terminal, UAE on April 9, destined for Asia.

April 11 Transit:

* The 298,195-dwt Very Large Crude Carrier or VLCC, Cospearl Lake, loaded with 1.96 million bbl of Basrah Medium crude from Al Basarah on March 5, destined for Zhoushan, China; and

* The 320,805-dwt VLCC, He Rong Hai, loaded with 2.154 million bbl of Arab crude from Ras Tanura on March 1-3, destined for Made Island crude oil terminal in Myanmar.

CENTCOM began mine-clearing operations in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday.

–Reporting by Thomas Cho, tcho@opisnet.com; Editing by Mei-Hwen Wong, mwong@opisnet.com