Oil Tankers U-Turn In Hormuz As US-Iran Talks Break Down

By Weilun Soon

Apr 12, 2026 (Bloomberg) –Two empty crude tankers attempted to make their way through the Strait of Hormuz and into the Persian Gulf on Sunday, only to make last-minute U-turns just as peace negotiations between the US and Iran broke down, threatening a fragile ceasefire.

Two very large crude carriers and one Aframax-class vessel — all without direct links to Iran — began to approach the narrow waterway from the Gulf of Oman late on Saturday, ship-tracking data show, arriving near Iran’s Larak island early on Sunday. At that effective checkpoint, Iraq-bound Agios Fanourios I and Pakistan-flagged Shalamar,