India’s Gulf of Kutch Handles 680,000 Barrels a Day in Oil Transfers

Ship-to-ship oil transfers in India’s Gulf of Kutch averaged about 680,000 barrels per day in September 2026, as congestion and operating limits at established Gulf hubs pushed some handoffs farther east.

Refined products made up about 65% of the Kutch volume, with crude accounting for the rest. South Korea, India, China and Japan together represented almost 70% of the reported activity.

Ship-to-ship transfers move oil between vessels offshore. Tankers leaving the Gulf hand cargo to larger ships farther along the route to Asian buyers. These longer routes can keep vessels occupied for more time. Established transfer zones near Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates and Sohar in Oman have faced congestion and operating constraints as some handoffs shifted toward India’s west coast.

“The real risk lies in getting the barrels out of the west of Hormuz to the STS zone,” said Varaleka Pant, a senior market analyst at Vortexa.

One cargo illustrates the route. A 2 million-barrel shipment of Saudi Arab Medium loaded at Ras Tanura on Sept. 9 was transferred to the very large crude carrier Front Forth off Kutch later that month. The cargo was bound for S-Oil’s Onsan refinery in South Korea, placing the offshore handoff between loading in Saudi Arabia and its intended destination.

Kutch remains a small transfer area compared with the Gulf of Oman, which is still the main location for these operations. The September figures do not establish a significant shift in overall tanker demand.