Tanker Convoy Reportedly Moving Up Gulf

MANAMA, Bahrain —  A U.S.-escorted convoy of Kuwaiti tankers was reported moving up the Saudi Arabian coast Wednesday after blinding sandstorms over the Persian Gulf hid its location for more than 24 hours.

Shipping sources, who asked not to be named, said other vessels had monitored radio traffic indicating that the convoy was about 50 miles south of Kuwait’s Al Ahmadi loading terminal.

The sources said the information apparently was based on radio exchanges, not on visual sightings. They also said they believe that the convoy was northbound.

The helicopter carrier Guadalcanal was reported off Bahrain, rather than at the head of the convoy, which would indicate that the tankers were moving without benefit of the mine-hunting Sea Stallion helicopters.

It is thought to be more difficult for the Iranians to plant mines or carry out small-boat attacks in the bad weather now affecting large areas of the gulf.

But the Kuwait Oil Co., which operates the tankers, has denied that a convoy set sail. The firm’s London office said Tuesday that one of the tankers scheduled to join the convoy, the 290,085-ton supertanker Middleton, was “still at sea” after leaving Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on Friday.

The oil company officials refused to give the location of the Middleton but said it would not reach the gulf area for several days.

“Absolutely not,” an official of the company said when asked about reports that ships were off Saudi Arabia.

Other sources earlier had said the convoy’s remaining two ships--the Surf City and the Chesapeake City--were anchored outside the Strait of Hormuz.

The three tankers are the last of the 11 destined to receive U.S. flags and naval protection under a Reagan Administration plan to protect Kuwaiti ships from attack by Iran.