New Delhi
The Pine Gas LPG carrier with 47,000 tonnes of cargo reached Vizag on the east coast early on Thursday, a port official said, the fifth vessel hauling cooking fuel from the Persian Gulf to have arrived at Indian shores since the Iran war began on Feb 28.
“The vessel entered its designated offshore zone safely around 2am today,” the port official said. “The ship’s cargo is being transferred through pipelines to be stored at portside storage facilities for the time being.”
The ship’s chief officer Sohan Lal along with 26 crew members are in good health, the official said. “The initiative was led by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways alongside the support from the Indian and Iranian navies to traverse the Strait of Hormuz,” Lal had said in a social media post, while still at sea.
The Indian Oil Corp-chartered ship’s arrival will add to domestic stocks of the world’s No. 2 importer of LPG, mostly from Gulf countries. Despite shortages, distribution of LPG cylinders, used by 333 million households, has remained “normal”, the government had said last week.
Domestic output has been amped up by nearly 50% from pre-war levels and commercial supplies have been pared to shield households, it said. Still, the country has to rely on heavily curtailed inbound shipments to meet supply gaps.
The 227-metre-long refrigerated ship sailed from a UAE port and exited the Strait of Hormuz on March 23 after being permitted by Iran, which has shut down the vital conduit for maritime traffic, triggering a global energy crisis.
Previously, the India-flagged MT Shivalik and MT Nanda Devi, hauling about 92,712 tonnes of LPG had made the passage. On March 28, the India-flagged Jag Vasant, which sailed along with the Pine Gas, reached the west coast offshore terminal of Vadinar.
On April 1, an LPG tanker hired by Bharat Petroleum Corp, the BW Tyr, docked at Mumbai port, having been let through by Iran. The BW Elm, another LPG tanker, has been diverted to Ennore and is expected to reach there by April 4, an update by the shipping ministry said.