India’s HPCL Struggles to Secure Oil Tankers as Hormuz Risks Persist

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited HPCL, a major Indian state-owned refiner, is struggling to hire tankers to transit the Strait of Hormuz and pick up cargoes in the Gulf, chairman Vikas Kaushal has told Bloomberg. Despite the recovery of crude oil flows from the Gulf via Hormuz to nearly pre-war levels, buyers continue to struggle with scarce vessel availability and last-minute decisions by shipowners not to brave the Strait to load crude oil from inside the Persian Gulf.

“The main challenge has been hiring of ships. Even if we have crude available for purchase from the Persian Gulf, sometimes finding vessels for the available loading dates is a challenge,” Kaushal told Bloomberg in an interview in Abu Dhabi this week.