One very large crude carrier crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday to exit the Middle East Gulf, according to ship tracking data from Kpler.
The Singapore-flagged 320,122-dwt Eagle Verona, owned by AET, was loaded with 1.82 million barrels of Basrah Heavy crude from Al Basrah on Feb. 28. The vessel is on term charter to Chinese oil major Sinopec and is expected to discharge its cargo in Ningbo, China, on June 13.
News of a possible U.S.-Iran peace deal triggered a sharp decline in oil prices on hopes that more oil supplies would flow out of the Middle East Gulf.
The front-month Interncontinental Exchange Brent crude futures contract for July fell to $99.36/bbl at 9:30 a.m. Singapore time on Monday, down from $105.38/bbl at Friday's close. Despite the drop, current Brent prices remain significantly higher than the $76.13/bbl recorded on the first trading day after the start of the Iran war on March 2.
May contracts for 380CST high sulfur fuel oil and 0.5% very low sulfur fuel oil swaps also declined, falling to $641.89 per metric ton and $760.34/mt, respectively, at Monday's Singapore open, compared to $673/mt and $794.7/mt at Friday's close.
However, Iran's Mehr News Agency reported on Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz will not return to pre-war status, even after a preliminary memorandum of understanding has been finalized.
Vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remained limited over the weekend, with five vessels transiting on Saturday and two on Sunday, according to Kpler data. For the week of May 18-24, the daily average fell to just four vessels, compared to 78 vessels daily at the start of the U.S.-Iran war in late February.
As of Sunday, a total of 124 VLCCs crossed the Strait of Hormuz since the conflict began, of which 72 have exited the Middle East Gulf.
This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
--Reporting by Thomas Cho, tcho@opisnet.com; Editing by Mei-Hwen Wong, mwong@opisnet.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 25, 2026 00:19 ET (04:19 GMT)
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