India seeks passage for more vessels stranded around Strait of Hormuz after a few sail through

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NEW DELHI, March 14 (Reuters) - India has sought safe passage for 22 ​of its vessels stranded west of the Strait of Hormuz, a foreign ‌affairs ministry spokesperson said on Saturday, after Iran allowed a few Indian ships to sail through, in a rare exception to the blockade.

Randhir Jaiswal told a press conference that India has stayed ​in touch with all major parties in the Middle East - including Gulf Cooperation ​Council countries, Iran, the U.S. and Israel - to convey its priorities, ⁠particularly on energy security.

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Tehran’s Ambassador to India, Mohammad Fathali, confirmed that Iran has ​allowed some Indian vessels to sail through the Strait of Hormuz. He was speaking ​on broadcaster India Today’s conclave in New Delhi.

Since the United States and Israel launched a bombing campaign on Iran, Tehran has largely halted traffic through the strait, which runs past its ​coast and through which around 20% of global oil and seaborne liquefied natural ​gas is supplied.

The blockade has triggered India’s worst gas crisis in decades with the government ‌cutting ⁠supplies for industries to shield households from any shortage of cooking gas.

The stranded ships include four crude oil vessels, six liquefied petroleum gas carriers and one liquefied natural gas vessel, special secretary at the Indian shipping ministry Rajesh Kumar Sinha said ​at the same press ​conference.

Sinha said two ⁠Indian vessels, Shivalik and Nanda Devi chartered by Indian Oil Corp (IOC.NS), opens new tab, had safely passed through the strait and would reach the ​western Indian ports of Mundra and Kandla on March 16 and ​17.

The vessels ⁠together carry more than 92,000 metric tons of liquefied petroleum gas, he said.

India is also trying to build consensus among BRICS members for a position on the Middle ⁠East ​conflict, Jaiswal said.

India is current chair of the BRICS ​group of countries comprising original members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa which has expanded to ​include Iran and others.

Reporting by Shivangi Acharya; Editing by Toby Chopra and Emelia Sithole-Matarise

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Nidhi Verma

Thomson Reuters

Nidhi Verma is an award-winning journalist working with Reuters. Presently, she is working as Team Leader-Energy in India. She has more than two decades of experience in covering India and global energy sector. Her stories show a new dimension of the energy sector, the nuances of the oil trade, the role of geopolitics and the diplomatic efforts that a country makes to mitigate the impact of external shocks.

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