Hormuz shipping edges up as Iran-Oman talks continue
Visible commodity vessel transits at the Strait of Hormuz rose slightly on Wednesday, even as Iran and Oman work on a waterway-sharing agreement.
Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz inched higher on Wednesday, even as geopolitical friction between Washington and Tehran persisted and regional talks over the waterway's future remained unresolved.
Data from Kpler showed 10 visible commodity vessel transits at Hormuz on Wednesday, up from eight a day earlier. That figure still lagged the 10-day moving average of roughly 15 vessels, suggesting activity remains subdued.
Among the vessels entering the strait from the Gulf of Oman were two medium-range fuel tankers, a liquefied petroleum gas carrier, a Panamax-sized tanker, and three handymax-sized tankers. Departing from the Gulf side were a medium-range fuel tanker, a bitumen tanker, and a bulk carrier.
Meanwhile, a senior Iranian source said Wednesday that Tehran and Muscat are still hammering out the details of an agreement on the Strait of Hormuz. This follows an earlier statement by Iran's Revolutionary Guards claiming the two countries had reached a consensus on sharing the waterway and its revenue.
Elsewhere, traffic at the Bab el-Mandeb strait slowed for a second consecutive day. Kpler data recorded 19 commodity vessel passages on Wednesday, including six tankers exiting the waterway — one of them a very large crude carrier — down from 24 the previous day.
Analysts note that some vessels may be transiting these key chokepoints with transponders switched off, which could mean actual traffic is higher than the visible counts suggest.