Hormuz shipping traffic falls sharply as US-Iran standoff persists

Only 12 commodity vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, down from 35 the previous weekend, as tensions between the United States and Iran continued to disrupt shipping through the key energy corridor, shipping data showed on September 21.

Visible traffic through the strait, which carried about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies before the war, has fallen to a trickle. Middle Eastern producers, however, continue to export oil using tankers travelling with their transponders switched off, Reuters reports.

According to provisional data from analytics firm Kpler, four trackable vessels — two tankers carrying refined oil products and two empty bulk and gas carriers — left the strait on September 20. Two smaller oil tankers entered the Gulf.

On September 19, five vessels carrying agricultural products, liquefied petroleum gas and fertiliser exited the Gulf, while an empty very large gas carrier entered, the data showed.

Before the US-Israeli war with Iran began on February 28, the strait typically handled around 125 large commercial vessels a day, including tankers, gas carriers, bulk carriers and container ships.

Recent attacks by the Houthis on Saudi Aramco’s East-West pipeline have prompted the Saudi state energy company to increase exports through the Strait of Hormuz this month and next after halting some shipments through Yanbu.

Saudi oil exports have subsequently recovered to more than 4 million barrels per day (bpd) so far in September, up from 2.4 million bpd in August, the lowest level since at least 2013, according to provisional Kpler data.

Kpler data showed that 18 tankers, mostly very large crude carriers, carrying about 34 million barrels of crude left the strait during the week of September 13. Saudi Arabia accounted for half of the exports, while Iraq supplied 35% of the volume.

By Sabina Mammadli