20,000-tonne LPG shipment safely docks at Kandla port

An LPG vessel carrying 20,000 metric tonnes reached Gujarat’s Kandla port after safely crossing the Strait of Hormuz amid West Asia tensions. India highlighted threats to shipping safety and urged protection of navigation routes as regional conflict disrupts global energy supply chains

Kandla (Gujarat): A vessel carrying 20,000 metric tonnes of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) arrived at Deendayal Port Authority in Kandla in Gujarat after crossing the Strait of Hormuz amid the West Asia crisis, officials said on Sunday.

The Marshall Islands-flagged MV SYMI started its journey from Qatar and docked at the port in Kandla around 11.30 pm on Saturday after crossing the Strait of Hormuz on May 13, they added.

---

Since early March, 13 India-flagged vessels, comprising 12 LPG tankers and one crude oil tanker, have crossed the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway close to the coast of Oman through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s energy supplies pass.

It has been severely disrupted by the conflict in West Asia that started on February 28, with the US and Israel launching joint attacks on Iran, triggering retaliatory strikes. It has resulted in one of the worst energy crisis the world has seen in recent decades.

Incidentally, at a special meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (UNECOSOC) on safeguarding energy and supply flows, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Parvathaneni Harish said targeting commercial shipping, endangering civilian crew and impeding freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz is “unacceptable”. On May 13, an India-flagged commercial vessel came under attack off the coast of Oman. Omani authorities rescued all 14 crew members of the vessel sailing from Somalia, but it was not immediately known who carried out the strike.