Indian state-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) is struggling to hire tankers to transit the Strait of Hormuz and pick up cargoes in the Gulf, Chairman Vikas Kaushal told Bloomberg, and sometimes the ship is already contracted and the shipowner backs out at the last minute.

Before the war, HPCL would usually pick up cargoes from inside the Gulf; vessel scarcity, war premiums and shipowners unwilling to risk the transit have now forced it to buy on the spot market and arrange deliveries directly at its refineries. Despite the recovery of crude flows through the Strait to nearly pre-war levels, buyers continue to face scarce vessel availability.