Six liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tankers and one liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier bound for India were anchored near the Strait of Hormuz after the US war on Iran began. On Monday morning, two of them, Pine Gas and Jag Vasant, took an unusual route to cross the strait and head home.
India Today tracked the positions of LPG tankers in the Gulf and found that these vessels were crossing the Strait of Hormuz via the Qeshm–Larak channel, rather than taking the shorter and straighter conventional path into the Arabian Sea. Five others have shown little movement from their last reported positions.
As they began their journey home, both vessels sailing close to one another changed their onboard messaging, shifting from generic identifiers such as “IND SHIP AND CREW” and “ALL INDIA CREW” to more specific signals like “PINE GAS INDIAN SHIP” and “JGVASNTINDSHIPINDCRW” while transiting via the Larak channel. This indicates that these tankers had possibly received prior approval from Iranian authorities to cross, and were explicitly broadcasting their identities to reduce the risk of being targeted while passing through the channel.
India has been engaged with Iran at the diplomatic level for safe passage of Indian ships through the Strait of Hormuz, which helped two LPG tankers, Shivalik and Nanda Devi, to transit the strait a few days back.
Jag Vasant, owned and operated by the Mumbai-based Great Eastern Shipping Company, was chartered by public sector refiner Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), while Pine Gas, owned and operated by Mumbai-based Seven Islands Shipping, was chartered by Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), as per publicly available details.
Vessel tracking data indicates that both LPG tankers likely began their voyage to India between Sunday night and Monday morning, and are expected to arrive in about three days.
Jag Vasant has a deadweight capacity of about 54,478 MT, while Pine Gas can carry roughly 58,585 MT. Deadweight refers to the total weight a vessel can carry, including cargo, fuel, fresh water, ballast water, provisions and crew.
The two tankers are estimated to be carrying LPG volumes comparable to Shivalik and Nanadadevi, which arrived earlier with around 46,000 metric tonnes. This quantity is adequate to meet India’s LPG needs for about one day. However, due to restrictions on commercial LPG, India’s overall demand has come down.
India Today earlier reported in an analysis that India would need at least 29 LPG tankers, each carrying volumes similar to Shivalik, to meet monthly demand. If these two vessels reach the coast safely, along with LPG imports from the United States, five shipments have been secured by India.
India Today
