India-flagged vessels start sailing out of Persian Gulf
NEW DELHI : Hours after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that the Strait of Hormuz is “completely open”, Indian ships stranded in the Persian Gulf started sailing out, approaching the Strait.
The Hindu has been tracking Indian-flagged vessels and ships bound for India in the Persian Gulf for the past month. Most of these ships are critical to India’s energy needs and are carrying crude oil.
Crude oil tanker MT Desh Garima has set sail from the Ras Laffan port in Qatar. It had started its voyage on March 30 before anchoring in the Gulf.
Crude oil tanker MT Desh Garima has set sail from the Ras Laffan port in Qatar. It had started its voyage on March 30 before anchoring in the Gulf.
Desh Suraksha, another crude oil tanker carrying around 0.8 million barrels of crude oil, was nearing Iran’s Larak island. It too had been moored for close to three weeks after sailing out of the Al Rams port in UAE.
The very large crude container (VLCC) MT Desh Vaibhav, which is bringing around 2 million barrels of crude oil from Iraq’s Al Basrah, had been in the Gulf ever since the Iran war began on February 28, 2026.
Desh Vibhor, another VLCC, has started its homeward journey from Al Rams port. VLCC Sanmar Herald which departed from Al Basrah on March 5, 2026, too is on its way out.
Besides these, container ship CMA CGM Diamond, which had set sail from the Khalifa port in the UAE on March 30, 2026, but was anchored in the Gulf, is on its way to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Navi Mumbai.
Another container ship, CMA CGM Manaus, was approaching the Larak Island around 1.30 a.m. IST. Bulk carrier Jag Arnav too sailed out of the Al Jubail port in Saudi Arabia.
LPG tanker DV Sarv Shakti, a Marshall Island-flagged ship, which had left Ghantoot in UAE on March 3, 2026, was on its way towards the strait.
Marinetraffic.com showed that ships nearing the Strait of Hormuz are charting the course set by the Iranian regime. Last week, Iran released a navigation chart instructing ships to stay close to the country’s coast. The chart had marked a portion of the Strait, north of Oman, in red and had declared it a “hazard zone”.
On Friday (April 17, 2026), Reuters quoted a senior Iranian official who said that ships can sail through the Strait “but this needs to be coordinated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps”.
“The Iranian official said transits would be restricted to lanes that Iran deemed safe, adding that military vessels were still prohibited from crossing the strait,” the report said.
Source : The Hindu
