Domestic shipping company Pan Ocean (Sinokor Group) transported 37% of the crude oil that passed through the Strait of Hormuz last month. As other shipping lines hesitated to operate due to the war involving Iran, the company deployed its large tanker fleet to secure an overwhelming share in crude oil transportation through Hormuz.

On 22 October (local time), Bloomberg News analyzed vessel tracking data from maritime information providers Vortexa, Kpler, and Signal Ocean, and found that tankers owned by Pan Ocean transported 105.6 million barrels of crude oil through the Strait of Hormuz in September.

This volume corresponds to 37% of the total of about 286.3 million barrels of crude oil that passed through the Strait of Hormuz during the same period. It also exceeded the combined shipment volume of 97.3 million barrels transported by the second- to fourth-largest operators, including Saudi state-owned shipping company Bahri, Kuwait Oil Tanker Company, and the shipping division of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).

Analysis by Lloyd’s List, a UK-based maritime specialist media outlet, showed similar results. Among the voyages by Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) through Hormuz last month, vessels related to Pan Ocean accounted for 47%, and their share exceeded half between 1 and 10 October.

Pan Ocean’s tankers are mainly deployed on short-distance “shuttle” routes, loading crude oil from oil-producing countries in the Persian Gulf, exiting the Strait of Hormuz, and then transferring the crude to other vessels in the Gulf of Oman. In addition to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the company is also transporting crude oil from Iraq and Qatar.

Analysts attribute Pan Ocean’s rapid dominance of the market to its securing of a large fleet even before the war. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) previously reported that Vice Chairman Chung Ka-hyun of Pan Ocean invested about USD 7 billion (around KRW 10 trillion) before the war to build the world’s largest tanker fleet. Pan Ocean is known to operate more than 160 tankers.

After the outbreak of war, as risks associated with navigating the Strait of Hormuz increased and other shipowners reduced their operations, Pan Ocean actively deployed its fleet to shuttle services, emerging as a key carrier in the recovery of crude oil exports from the Gulf region.

Popular News