Only four commodity vessels were detected to have moved inbound or out of the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, shipping data showed early on Friday, while oil shipping options out of the Middle East became fewer with the closure of the Saudi pipeline to the Red Sea port of Yanbu.
Three vessels moved into the Persian Gulf, and one exited the Strait on Thursday, down from the 10-day average of as many as 16 ships daily transiting the chokepoint, according to preliminary data from Kpler cited by Reuters.
The tracking excludes any movements of ships that have switched off their positioning systems to avoid detection or becoming targets of attacks. Owners and energy exporters are becoming increasingly careful navigating through the Strait of Hormuz amid re-escalation of hostilities this month, including strikes on tankers, the threat from the Iran-aligned Houthis in the Red Sea, and the temporary shutdown of the East-West onshore pipeline in Saudi Arabia.
Tanker traffic at the Strait of Hormuz has recovered to about half to two-thirds of pre-war levels, according to various estimates by analysts and satellite tracking services. But it’s still below pre-war levels, while threats to the traffic at the Bab el-Mandeb Strait have just intensified as the Iran-aligned Houthis moved to control key islands on the chokepoint of the southern Red Sea.
Traffic just outside Hormuz, however, is surging, as Saudi Arabia has turned to selling millions of barrels of crude oil in the spot market to be picked up from offshore Oman just outside the Strait of Hormuz. The Kingdom was forced to rely more on Hormuz shipping after it shut down the key onshore pipeline that helps it bypass the chokepoint.
The Saudis are selling the cargoes for pickup and loading for this month and next onto other vessels outside the Strait of Hormuz. This means buyers will not be sending tankers into the Persian Gulf via Hormuz, but will load the cargoes in ship-to-ship (STS) transfers in the Gulf of Oman.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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