A Greek Tanker Has the “Guts” to Pass Through the Strait of Hormuz

President Trump encouraged tankers to have the guts to move through the Strait of Hormuz, and one finally did. Carrying one million barrels of Saudi crude to India, the Greek-operated Shenlong recently passed through Hormuz. It demonstrates that a single ship can grab attention across markets, ports, and shipping teams.

The Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply passes, has been effectively closed to regular commercial shipping since early March 2026 following U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and subsequent Iranian retaliation.

Bloomberg reported that it exited the Strait with its signal off:

“The Shenlong tanker, which is operated by Greece’s Dynacom Tankers Management Ltd., switched off its transponder in the Persian Gulf on March 4 while sailing toward Hormuz and began signaling near India’s coastline on Monday morning, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

Traders have been closely looking for any sign that ship traffic is beginning to move through Hormuz. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in an interview with Fox News over the weekend that a tanker had made the journey through.”

Trump has said the Iranian navy is finished, ‘have some guts.” The last word is that nearly 50 Iranian naval ships have been sunk.

The Wall Street Journal Report

Even in the adrenaline-fueled shipping industry, billionaire George Prokopiou has long been renowned for sailing close to the wind in pursuit of profit.

This week, the Greek magnate made one of the boldest plays of his 55-year tanker career: sending at least five ships through the Strait of Hormuz while war flared across the Middle East.

They are among the few merchant vessels to have sailed through the waterway since the conflagration trapped thousands of boats and threatened a global energy crisis.

Prokopiou’s rivals, many of whom have tankers stuck in the Persian Gulf, are reluctant to dispatch any more for fear their ships or sailors could join the casualty list.

His gambit is that oil importers will pay sky-high rates to an owner willing to get crude out of the war zone. Alternatively, Gulf producers could charter ships to stow crude at sea as their tanks on land fill up. Already, drillers in Iraq and Kuwait have slowed output because they were out of storage space.

Armed guards patrolled the decks of Prokopiou’s ships while they sailed through the Strait with their transponders off to avoid attracting fire from Iran, according to ship-tracking data and people familiar with the voyages. But there is little the ships could have done if they had been attacked by missiles, drones or limpet mines.

One tanker made the move. Now the whole market is watching.

Carrying one million barrels of Saudi crude to India, the Greek-operated Shenlong recently passed through Hormuz. It doesn’t mean the route is fully open—but it shows how a single ship can grab attention across markets,… pic.twitter.com/VV2UeHBvyt

— The Maritime (@themaritimenet) March 9, 2026