{"id":47936,"date":"2026-04-16T09:04:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T09:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=47936"},"modified":"2026-04-16T09:04:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T09:04:29","slug":"us-sanctioned-supertankers-enter-gulf-despite-blockade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=47936","title":{"rendered":"US-sanctioned supertankers enter Gulf despite blockade"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>A second US-sanctioned supertanker \u200bhas entered the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz, shipping data showed, despite \u200ca US\u00a0blockade on vessels visiting Iranian ports.<\/p>\n<p>US\u00a0President Donald Trump announced the blockade on Sunday after weekend peace talks in Islamabad between the US\u00a0and Iran\u00a0failed to reach a deal.<\/p>\n<p>The US\u00a0Central Command said on X that 10 \u200bvessels have been turned around and no ships have broken through since the start of \u200bthe blockade on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Iran&#8217;s Fars News Agency said on Wednesday that an Iranian \u2060supertanker subject to US\u00a0sanctions crossed the strait towards Iran&#8217;s Imam Khomeini port despite the blockade. \u200bFars did not identify the tanker or give further details of its voyage.<\/p>\n<p>The empty Very Large Crude \u200bCarrier (VLCC) RHN entered the Gulf on Wednesday, data from LSEG and Kpler showed. It was not immediately clear where the VLCC, which is capable of carrying 2 million barrels of oil, is heading.<\/p>\n<p>The tanker&#8217;s entry into the Gulf \u200bcomes a day after the US-sanctioned VLCC Alicia passed through the Strait of Hormuz. Alicia is \u200bheading to Iraq, Kpler data showed.<\/p>\n<p>Both tankers have records of carrying Iranian oil in the past few years, according \u200cto \u2060Kpler data.<\/p>\n<p>Vessels that have been forced to turn back include the\u00a0US-sanctioned tanker Rich Starry, which returned to the Gulf on Wednesday, a day after exiting.<\/p>\n<p>Read:\u00a0What does a US naval blockade of Iran mean for oil flows?<\/p>\n<p>The US\u00a0has warned it\u00a0could add secondary sanctions\u00a0on buyers of Iranian oil in an apparent effort to gain leverage ahead of more negotiations, just weeks \u200bafter Washington loosened the \u200benforcement of some Iranian \u2060energy sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>Iran could consider allowing ships\u00a0to sail freely through the Omani side of the Strait of Hormuz without risk of attack as part of \u200bproposals it has offered in negotiations with the U.S., providing a deal is \u200bclinched to \u2060prevent renewed conflict, a source briefed by Tehran said.<\/p>\n<p>The US\u00a0blockade is expected to reduce Iran&#8217;s crude exports, although the OPEC producer could sustain its current production at 3.5 million barrels per day (bpd) for weeks \u2060by \u200bstoring oil in onshore tanks, analysts say.<\/p>\n<p>Iran exported 1.84 million \u200bbpd of crude in March and has shipped 1.71 million bpd thus far in April, compared with an average of 1.68 \u200bmillion bpd in 2025, according to Kpler data.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A second US-sanctioned supertanker \u200bhas entered the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz, shipping data showed, despite \u200ca US\u00a0blockade on vessels visiting Iranian ports. US\u00a0President Donald Trump announced the blockade on Sunday after weekend peace talks in Islamabad between the US\u00a0and Iran\u00a0failed to reach a deal. The US\u00a0Central Command said on X that 10 \u200bvessels [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47936\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}