ع
Reuters reported on September 21 that a total of 17 commodity vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend down from 37 the previous weekend as tension in the Gulf persisted with the US and Iran in stalemate. Among trackable ships five vessels exited the strait on Sunday while another two small-sized oil tankers entered the Gulf provisional data from analytics firm Kpler showed as of early Monday. The vessels that exited were the very large crude carrier Pinios two tankers carrying refined oil products and two empty carriers for bulk goods and gas.
On Saturday five vessels left the Gulf carrying agricultural products liquefied petroleum gas and fertiliser while an empty very large gas carrier entered the data indicated. The Shandong Redwood LNG tanker carrying a cargo loaded from Qatar’s Ras Laffan port exited the Hormuz strait on September 19 and is heading to Pakistan according to Kpler and LSEG information. Its manager Shandong Marine Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment Reuters stated.
A total of 22 tankers mostly VLCCs carrying 42 million barrels of crude exited the Hormuz strait in the week of September 13 Kpler data showed with Saudi Arabia and Iraq each accounting for 43 percent of the volume. Visible traffic through the strait the conduit for a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas before the war has dwindled to a trickle the news service added. Middle Eastern producers continue to export oil on tankers travelling with their transponders off according to the report.
Before the US-Israeli conflict with Iran started on February 28 the strait typically handled about 125 large commercial vessels per day Reuters noted citing pre-war shipping patterns. Saudi crude exports have recovered to over 4 million barrels per day so far in September separate Kpler figures show. The low visible traffic levels come despite those export volumes as many vessels continue to operate without active tracking signals.
At the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea 51 vessels made the crossing with 33 exiting the strait over the weekend including an Aframax-sized tanker carrying about 700000 barrels of Saudi crude Kpler data showed. Traffic through that passage has also fallen from prior weekends as regional conflicts disrupt multiple chokepoints. The combined data from both straits underscores the constrained flows through key energy routes since fighting began in late February.
Kpler tracking further indicated that the very large crude carrier Pinios was on Monday transferring 2 million barrels of Iraqi Basrah crude oil off the United Arab Emirates’ Fujairah to another VLCC expected to head to China. Such ship-to-ship transfers have become more common as operators seek to mitigate risks associated with full transits. The overall pattern reflects how commodity movements have adapted to the ongoing geopolitical impasse between Washington and Tehran.
