Tanker Booking Difficulties Disrupt HPCL Cargoes Through Hormuz Despite Oil Flows’ Recovery

Key Facts

Hindustan Petroleum Corp. (HPCL) is struggling to book tankers to transit the Strait of Hormuz and load cargoes from inside the Persian Gulf, its chairman, Vikram Kaushal, said, according to a Bloomberg report carried by Business Standard on Nov. 6, 2026. The obstacle comes despite an increase in the number of ships transiting the strait and higher crude supplies from the region. Kaushal said the company’s success in arranging passage was "mixed," highlighting that an improvement in oil flows does not guarantee vessels are available to carry cargoes to refineries. The issue depends on HPCL’s ability to secure a tanker for loading on a specified date, not solely on crude availability. He said the company can still receive supplies from outside the strait.

Kaushal described the booking difficulties, saying crude may be available while the company cannot find a vessel that fits the loading schedule. He added that a withdrawal can happen even after a tanker has been contracted, explaining: "Sometimes the vessel is booked, then its owner says at the last minute that it cannot make the voyage." These withdrawals leave the company needing to rearrange the cargo, with little time to find a replacement tanker. Booking is more difficult in Hormuz because the pool of shipowners willing to transit the waterway is relatively limited, according to the report. Vessel availability on schedule has thus become an essential part of securing cargoes from inside the Gulf.

The booking problem coincided with a rise in HPCL’s purchases of Middle Eastern oil after a sharp drop in April. According to data from Kpler cited in the report, the refiner bought about 240,000 barrels per day of oil from the region in 2025, before purchases fell to 57,000 barrels per day in April, when the war nearly closed Hormuz. The average then rose to 256,000 barrels per day last month as more supplies from the region became available. This recovery puts last month’s purchases above the 2025 level, at a time when the company says tanker availability for loading remains mixed. Kaushal said last month that HPCL had increasingly turned to the spot market and was receiving cargoes directly at its refineries.

Oil flows from the Middle East have risen in recent months to levels close to those before the war, as the number of ships transiting Hormuz has increased. But the report linked the vessel shortage to a surge in the cost of transporting barrels worldwide, while pointing to an escalation in Iranian maritime attacks. The report does not specify particular tanker classes or their daily rates, but describes an unprecedented shortage of vessels and a sharp rise in shipping costs. To get around transit constraints, Gulf producers have begun transporting their exports themselves and then handing cargoes directly to customers outside the waterway. These arrangements provide a way to receive crude from outside Hormuz, an option Kaushal said HPCL continues to use.

International Energy Agency estimates show the scale of dependence on the strait and the limited capacity of alternative routes. About 20 million barrels per day of oil passed through Hormuz in 2025, while the agency estimated available capacity to export crude from the Gulf via alternative routes at about 3.5 to 5.5 million barrels per day. Saudi and Emirati exports through Yanbu and Fujairah rose from 4.1 million barrels per day in February 2026 to a peak of 7.8 million in June, before falling to 5.5 million in August amid Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. That month, average oil flows through Hormuz were 7.6 million barrels per day, according to the agency. The agency said in September that flows had partially recovered but remained below pre-war levels.

In April, the International Energy Agency, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group said shipping through the strait "has not yet returned to normal," and that restoring maritime traffic does not immediately bring commodity supplies back to pre-conflict levels. In its September outlook, the agency maintained its estimate of the impact of disrupted flows on global demand, forecasting a contraction of 2.5 million barrels per day in 2026, followed by a recovery of 2.6 million barrels per day in 2027. It linked the delay in normalization to continued deadlock in negotiations between the United States and Iran. For HPCL, the return of regional supplies means more purchases that need to be transported, while loading schedules and the availability of shipowners willing to transit Hormuz remain direct challenges. Receiving supplies from outside the strait and turning to the spot market remain part of the company’s arrangements in the coming period.