Oman oil escape route: How ship-to-ship transfers work — despite big risks

Saudi Arabia’s lipid exports person been disrupted aft Iran-aligned Houthis damaged its cardinal East-West pipeline, which helped circumvent the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz – a planetary lipid chokepoint.

With the strait successful effect closed and Bab al-Mandeb falling nether Houthi control, Riyadh has been forced to find ways to export its oil. It is present progressively offering crude to buyers done ship-to-ship transfers disconnected Oman.

As commercialized ships are progressively refusing to walk done the strait owed to the conflict, Saudi Arabia is transporting the crude to Oman’s Sohar port, located conscionable extracurricular the strait, wherever the lipid is transferred from Saudi tankers to others.

Iran closed the strait, done which astir a 5th of pre-war planetary vigor passed, successful effect to the United States-Israeli war, and has utilized the waterway arsenic leverage successful the talks.

Media reports suggest that the Hormuz closure and rising lipid prices person pushed the US and its allies successful the portion to follow shadiness tactics, overmuch similar what Iran has been doing for years to export its ain crude.

So, what are ship-to-ship transfers, and are they safe?

A US Navy guided-missile destroyer moves on the Suez Canal, en way to enactment the Operation Epic Fury onslaught connected Iran, disconnected Egypt, connected March 5, 2026 [Reuters]

Where are these ports?

Two ports that person go cardinal to bypassing the Strait of Hormuz are Sohar and different disconnected the seashore of Fujairah successful the United Arab Emirates.

Sohar is simply a large deepwater concern hub that handles important bulk cargo, petrochemicals and instrumentality traffic. Its strategical presumption has allowed planetary shipping lines to bypass the constrictive Gulf bottleneck portion maintaining nonstop overland connectivity to Arabian Peninsula markets.

The UAE’s Port of Fujairah is situated connected the country’s eastbound seashore and serves arsenic 1 of the world’s largest bunkering and crude lipid retention hubs. Its open-ocean anchorage provides a important offshore staging country for ship-to-ship transfers and vigor exports extracurricular the Strait of Hormuz.

These ports are adjacent to the boundaries drawn by the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, the caller Iranian assemblage established to negociate the Strait of Hormuz.

The Iranian authorities person attacked ships that they accidental usage unauthorised routes – the confederate way of the strait, person to Omani waters – to transit the waterway.

The US subject has reportedly been assisting scores of these secretive ship-to-ship lipid transfers to support Gulf vigor exports flowing, starting from aboriginal May this year.

[Al Jazeera]

What are ship-to-ship transfers and however bash they happen?

Ship-to-ship (STS) transfers are maritime exchanges wherever cargo — work crude lipid oregon liquefied earthy state (LNG) present — is transferred straight betwixt 2 vessels astatine sea.

STS transfers service arsenic a captious logistical span erstwhile nonstop larboard entree is blocked oregon restricted.

The companies request to undertake meticulous coordination amid favourable oversea conditions to forestall spills and collisions.

One vessel, often the larger ship, maintains a dependable people oregon anchors. The manoeuvring vessel approaches slowly, followed by hulls brought parallel, protected by pneumatic rubber fenders deployed on the vessel sides to sorb impacts.

Their trackers are turned disconnected to support secrecy and debar detection. After immoderate mandatory information checks, the discharging ship’s pumps determination the lipid done the connected hoses portion monitoring unit and weather.

Who is engaging successful ship-to-ship transfers and why?

Riyadh relied connected the East-West 1,200km (746-mile) pipeline, which connects the kingdom’s main oil-producing fields successful the eastbound of the state with Yanbu larboard connected the Red Sea seashore successful the west, to export oil.

With its closure aft caller drone attacks, Riyadh’s archetypal enactment becomes “shipping much crude from its Gulf terminals done the Strait of Hormuz, including ship-to-ship transfers extracurricular the strait, specified arsenic Sohar successful Oman,” said Rishi Rajanala, probe specializer successful Oil Americas astatine LSEG Data & Analytics.

“Gulf producers person already been moving portion of their exports this way, but volumes beryllium connected tanker availability, security and freight costs, and stay good beneath pre-war levels,” helium added.

Starting this month, Hormuz-route exports person “edged higher, implicit 2 mb/d [million barrels per day] successful the archetypal 2 weeks, astir 1 mb/d supra August,” said Rahul Choudhary, VP Upstream Research, Rystad Energy.

He added that the uptick is expected to emergence further this period arsenic “already evident successful Aramco offering further loadings to Asian refiners retired of Sohar”.

“Saudi Arabia tin thin further connected acheronian tanker enactment successful the coming days to offset Yanbu losses,” helium added, referring to Saudi Arabia losing entree to the Red Sea for shipping.

But it isn’t lone Saudi Arabia. Reports from autarkic trackers and the media person besides identified Kuwait and Qatar arsenic relying connected akin tactics astatine times to transit cargoes past the Strait of Hormuz.

Are ship-to-ship transfers safe?

Ship-to-ship transfers are comparatively dangerous, particularly erstwhile being taken up successful shadows — and besides inefficient compared with modular shipping by vessels.

Experts enactment that unregulated STS transfers often trust connected ageing vessels with mediocre hull maintenance, uninspected hoses, and turned-off AIS tracking without security coverage.

TankerTrackers, a level that monitors planetary lipid shipments, said past week that ship-to-ship transfers are rising. “Over the past 14 days, determination were 7.15 cardinal barrels per time being exchanged,” the show said, quoting AIS numbers and outer imagery.

The show added that it represents an summation of 56 percent compared with the erstwhile month.

What’s the vantage of ship-to-ship transfers?

Despite the risks, ship-to-ship transfers besides transportation an upside successful a volatile scenery similar the Middle East today.

Ships and tankers belonging to large transport companies are unwilling to participate the Strait of Hormuz due to the fact that of the menace of attacks from either Iran oregon the US. At the aforesaid time, countries successful the Gulf request to get arsenic overmuch lipid and state retired done the Strait of Hormuz arsenic possible.

So these countries, successful effect, carnivore the risk, sending their tankers and ships, often with trackers switched off, conscionable crossed the Strait of Hormuz, wherever accepted lipid and state carriers hold successful safer waters. These carriers past ferry the lipid and state to markets successful China, India, South Korea, Japan and elsewhere.

Who provides security for specified ship-to-ship transfers?

For accepted insurers, ship-to-ship transfers tin beryllium “particularly complicated”, said Oscar Seikaly, CEO of the NSI Insurance Group.

Any nonaccomplishment could impact the carnal vessels and their cargo, but besides “pollution and collision liabilities, cargo insurance, war-risk cover,” and different factors, helium said. “Underwriters whitethorn besides enforce navigational warranties, information conditions, further warfare premiums oregon restrictions,” helium told Al Jazeera.

However, helium pointed out, “most of the lipid that is being moved belongs to the nationalist lipid companies of the respective country”. Therefore, Seikaly said, galore trust connected sovereign-backed self-insurance arrangements and backstage security markets.

“During wartime oregon different high-risk disruptions, insurers are improbable to supply wide screen to see ship-to-ship transfers,” helium said. “As a result, a important stock of the hazard whitethorn yet stay with the producing state alternatively than being transferred afloat to commercialized insurers.”