Supertankers Resume Hormuz Transits as Oil Majors Hedge Charter Risk
Three vessels carrying 6 million barrels passed through the strait in May while major oil companies moved to lock in VLCC capacity.
Three supertankers carrying a combined 6 million barrels of Middle East crude oil exited the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday (2026-05-20), according to shipping data from Kpler and LSEG, ending stints of more than two months stranded in the Persian Gulf while Iran disrupted traffic through the waterway.2,5 The resumption of transit came as the fragile US-Iran truce allowed vessels to move, though the terms under which they did so pointed to how uneasy the passage remained.
The departing tankers disabled their Automatic Identification System transponders to reduce exposure to potential Iranian targeting, according to Kpler and LSEG data.3 That measure — more common in active conflict zones than in the world's primary oil shipping lane — illustrated the conditions under which commercial shipping was resuming. Iran's disruption had affected roughly 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, according to Al Jazeera.4
Malaysia sought clearance from Iran for seven of its vessels to transit the strait, with one of those, the Serifos, chartered by Thailand's state-owned PTT, according to LSEG and Kpler data.4 The seven vessels still awaiting clearance as of available reporting represent the residual disruption that the partial transit resumption has yet to unwind.
Against that backdrop, TotalEnergies has been seeking to hire very large crude carriers capable of hauling up to 2 million barrels per voyage, trading sources told Bloomberg.5 The supertanker charter hunt reflects a calculation that risk to Hormuz availability has not fully dissipated even as tankers move again. Chartering VLCC tonnage now locks in capacity before other companies make the same assessment.2
EIA data for the week ending June 27 showed a build of 3.8 million barrels in US commercial crude stockpiles, bringing total inventories to 419 million barrels.1 That level sits roughly 9 percent below the five-year seasonal average, sustaining underlying tightness despite the weekly accumulation.1 Distillate inventories fell 1.7 million barrels in the same week, dropping 21 percent below the five-year average.1 Gasoline production slipped to 9.6 million barrels per day, and total products supplied over four weeks averaged 20.3 million barrels per day, down 1.1 percent year on year.1
ICE Brent crude front-month was last quoted at $72.12 per barrel ahead of the July 4 holiday weekend, with WTI crude front-month at $68.78 per barrel as of 2026-07-04 08:17 UTC.1 The EIA's weekly data had shown Brent trading at $67.73 at the time of its publication, up just $0.20 week over week — suggesting limited market response to the inventory build in isolation.1
Morgan Stanley warned in mid-May of a "race against time" for the oil market, flagging that US export increases and a reduction in Chinese import volumes had absorbed the equivalent of 9.3 million barrels per day of tightening that would otherwise have spread globally.7 That buffer has limits. China's share of Russian crude exports fell to 26 percent in 2024 from 32 percent in 2023, while India's share rose to 34 percent, according to EIA data.6 As Russian barrels fill Indian refineries at discounted prices, Middle East producers compete more aggressively for the Asian volumes that have become their primary growth market — a dynamic that makes VLCC charter availability and Hormuz access directly interconnected.6
The seven vessels awaiting Malaysian diplomatic clearance through the strait are the clearest indicator of how far the corridor is from operating normally.4 Another disruption would reverse the tentative improvement in VLCC supply at a moment when US crude stockpiles already sit well below their five-year average and distillate markets show structural tightness.1,7