Strait of Hormuz traffic nearly halts after tanker attacks
Commodity vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz fell to near zero over the weekend following tanker attacks, with diplomatic efforts stalled.
Commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz slowed to a near standstill over the weekend, according to vessel tracking data, following attacks on tankers in the region. The sharp decline in transits comes as diplomatic efforts between the United States and Iran to resolve the conflict appear to have stalled.
Ship tracking data from Kpler showed that only five commodity vessels passed through the strait on Saturday, with no vessels registered for Sunday. This compares with 31 transits recorded during the previous weekend. Before the conflict began in February, the waterway typically saw more than 130 ships pass through daily.
Among the vessels that did enter the strait on Saturday was an empty Very Large Crude Carrier with its Automatic Identification System switched off, as well as an Indian-flagged Very Large Gas Carrier that used the Iranian route. A small tanker carrying Iranian fuel oil was also observed exiting the strait.
The slowdown follows an announcement by the United Arab Emirates that three vessels operated by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company were attacked while in transit last week. The United States has stated it could maintain a naval blockade of Iran indefinitely.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in an interview with local media on Saturday that Washington must meet Iran's conditions regarding the strait in order for shipping to resume. The waterway handled a fifth of the world's shipments of crude oil and liquefied natural gas before the war.
Meanwhile, at the Bab el-Mandeb strait, where Yemeni Houthis declared a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia on July 20, Kpler data showed 49 weekend transits by commodity vessels, down from 55 in the prior week. No Saudi oil shipments were tracked through that route.