It has been a few weeks since an attack put a hold on the Sanmar Herald’s progress. Now, it and two other Indian supertankers have made it through the strait, and the immediate fear for the men on board and the flow of oil has abated. People in the know say all three are homeward bound with set arrival times.
Why this is important for India
You can only appreciate what this means when you consider the risk at one of the world’s most vital maritime bottlenecks, especially with the Gulf running hot. The 94 Indians on these three ships have come through unscathed, officials will tell you, and are making for Indian ports.
Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has put it on record: safe passage is a done deal. He pointed out the 8.6 lakh MT of cargo and said the government is working with every agency it can to keep our seafarers and the country’s energy supply secure.
The three tankers in question
There’s the Sanmar Herald (IMO: 9330563) with 2,85,400 MT and 30 of its own, due in at Paradip. Then you have the Desh Vaibhav (IMO: 9297498) and the Desh Vibhor (IMO: 9610298), which have also put the same waters in their wake and are coming to India.
Here is the run-down on the numbers:
– Sanmar Herald: 2,85,400 MT, 30 crew, to Paradip
– Desh Vaibhav: 2,86,572 MT, 37 crew, to Vadinar
– Desh Vibhor: 2,88,893 MT, 27 crew, to Sikka
Some history on the Sanmar Herald
We’re looking at a July 1 date for the Sanmar Herald to dock at Paradip. This is in the shadow of an April 18 incident where the IRGC was said to have opened fire on the vessel as it tried to make its way through the strait.
The Jag Arnav, an Indian bulk carrier, was in the mix then too, in what was described as Iran’s answer to a US blockade in the vicinity. An audio clip from an independent tracker has since been put out there, giving you a sense of how closely the Sanmar’s journey has been watched.
As for the Desh Vaibhav and Desh Vibhor
The Desh Vaibhav is making for Vadinar in Gujarat with 2,86,572 MT and 37 seafarers; it should be there by June 24 after leaving Al Basrah.
Not far behind is the Desh Vibhor. It left Al Rams with 2,88,893 MT and 27 Indians on board and is to be at Sikka Port on the 24th.
The security side of things
All of this is in the wake of a very thin line of understanding between Washington and Tehran to stand down and talk. A few days back, 13 of our ships were sitting in the strait because the situation was so volatile.
And just before any of that, we lost three of our own on a Palau-flagged ship to US missiles while they were in the strait. We know them as Suresh Patnala, the chief engineer; Shivanand Chorasiya, a fitter; and Aditya Sharms, a cadet.
It was a sore point at home and something PM Narendra Modi had to bring up with President Trump at the G7. The opposition, for their part, have been hard on him for not making more of a show of it in public.
Where we go from here
Eyes are on the calendar now: the Desh Vaibhav and Desh Vibhor on the 24th at Vadinar and Sikka, and the Sanmar Herald in Paradip on the first of the month. The authorities are on top of it until the last of the cargo and crews are in port.
Two things will tell us how this plays out:
– If the current lull in the Gulf is for real
– How fast the rest of our ships can get through
But for the moment, seeing three of these big carriers come through without a hitch is something to be glad of on a route like this.
