Two vessels carrying Iranian crude oil — the Rani and the Amil, with a combined cargo of approximately one million barrels — briefly signalled Pakistan’s Karachi as their next destination on July 15 before making U-turns as the US naval blockade of Iranian ports went into effect (Bloomberg; CNN).
The tankers’ transponder data showed Karachi listed as their next port of call — a rare move given the longstanding sanctions on Iranian oil — before the ships reversed course as the US Central Command began enforcing the blockade. CENTCOM’s enforcement order applies to all vessel traffic heading to or from Iranian shores regardless of flag.
The episode is the most direct evidence yet of the pressure the US-Iran conflict is placing on Pakistan’s energy supply chain. Pakistan imports LNG and petroleum products through Karachi and has seen its petrol price reach a record Rs310.71 per litre effective July 11, partly driven by elevated global energy costs caused by the Strait of Hormuz crisis. One million barrels of crude, priced at current market rates, would represent a significant direct import for Pakistan’s refineries.
The mediator’s bind
Pakistan is the co-mediator of the US-Iran ceasefire negotiations, hosting two rounds of technical talks in Islamabad and working alongside Qatar and Oman to maintain a diplomatic channel between Washington and Tehran. The tanker episode illustrates the fundamental tension in Pakistan’s position: Islamabad is close enough to Tehran that Iranian shippers briefly consider it a viable off-take destination, but cannot accept Iranian crude without risking exactly the kind of US enforcement that the blockade is now conducting.
Pakistan has not publicly commented on the tanker U-turns. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said separately that his government remained “in touch with mediators” including Oman, Qatar and Pakistan, and that their role was to de-escalate. Whether the talks can be reconvened now that Iran has declared the Islamabad MoU void and the US has resumed strikes and the blockade is the central diplomatic question.
