Hormuz Traffic Falls Below 10-Day Average as LNG Carriers Reappear Outside Strait

Four commodity vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, fewer than the six recorded a day earlier and well short of the roughly 16 ships that have typically used the waterway over the past ten days, preliminary tracking data showed.

Three of the four vessels were heading into the Gulf through the strait, while one was exiting, according to shipping data compiled at 0200 GMT. The group comprised two Panamax tankers, one Supramax ship and one Kamsarmax vessel. The strait handled about a fifth of global oil and gas shipments before the Iran conflict.

Such figures can shift, as some ships switch off their transponders while transiting to reduce the risk of detection in the conflict zone.

Separately, three liquefied natural gas carriers were tracked outside the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday. Two of them, Al Daayen and Al Samriya, were carrying cargoes loaded at Ras Laffan in Qatar and were last seen inside the strait on September 13 and 14 respectively. Al Samriya is controlled by QatarEnergy, while Al Daayen is owned and managed by Seapeak. Both are now outside the strait.

The third vessel, Marigold LNG, operated by Kratos Gas Transport, is signalling for arrival at Dabhol in India after loading at Das Island in the United Arab Emirates.

A report on Wednesday said the QatarEnergy-linked vessel Al Rayyan carried out a dark ship-to-ship cargo transfer with another Qatari carrier off the coast of Oman, with transponders switched off. Tracking data showed Al Rayyan conducted the transfer with a ship named Al Mashabiyyah on September 13. QatarEnergy, Kratos Gas Transport and Seapeak did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

At the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, another key maritime chokepoint at the southwest tip of Yemen, 23 commodity vessels transited on Thursday, compared with a 10-day average of about 26. Thirteen were heading towards the Red Sea and ten towards the Gulf of Aden. They included a Panamax and a Suezmax tanker, four Supramax vessels and six Aframax tankers.

The Iran-backed Houthis have seized Yemen's entire Red Sea coastline since last week, prompting Saudi Arabian air force strikes. The spread of the war to Yemen and Saudi Arabia has raised fresh concerns about oil supplies by jeopardising the Red Sea route for exports, the main alternative for Gulf supplies while traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains constrained.