How a Little-Known Company Dominated the Persian Gulf Oil Trade

Oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz have rebounded in the past few months, as tankers have braved constant Iranian attacks to get their cargo out of the Persian Gulf.The recovery rests largely on the efforts of an enigmatic South Korean shipping company.That company, Sinokor, has accounted for about a half of the tanker transits through the strait since the beginning of September, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence, a maritime analysis firm.“They’ve played a huge role in getting oil out of Hormuz, no doubt,” said Tomer Raanan, a senior maritime intelligence analyst at Lloyd’s List.But concentrating so much oil in the hands of one tanker company could be adding to the cost of shipments out of the Middle East and across the world — rates that have already been pushed higher by the greater risk the war has forced on much of the global oil trade.In an exceptionally well-timed bet, Sinokor, led by a father and son who are little known even in South Korea, began a buying spree in the two months before the United States and Israel attacked Iran at the end of February.It is now, by some counts, the largest operator of supertankers in the world.While many tankers are tied up shuttling oil through the strait, creating shortages elsewhere, Sinokor’s growth has given it outsize power, said Kristoffer Barth Skeie, an equity analyst specializing in tanker companies for Arctic Securities.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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