Strait of Hormuz Shipping Traffic Falls Further as Saudi Oil Flows Rise

Commodity vessels traversing the Strait of Hormuz declined further, with just a dozen commodity vessels in total making the passage this weekend, Reuters has reported. This compares to 35 tankers and other commodity carriers passing the chokepoint a week earlier.

The data includes only tankers that move with their transponders switched on. Many choose to turn these off to avoid detection, and not all ship-trackers include them in the tally.

An earlier report from Reuters cited Kpler data as showing only four tankers passing the Strait of Hormuz last Thursday, down from a 10-day moving average of 16 vessels. The data suggests Iran’s squeeze on movement in the waterway has tightened. Over the week to September 13, just 13 very large crude carriers exited the strait, Kpler also reported.

Yet according to JP Morgan, tanker traffic is improving, especially in Saudi Arabia. “Middle East oil flows remain surprisingly strong despite the disruption to Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline,” the investment bank said in a note on Friday, adding that “The most notable pivot has come from Saudi Arabia.” According to JP Morgan, Saudi Arabia has been exporting crude at a rate of 2.9 million barrels daily over the past six days via Hormuz.

Saudi Arabia sends the oil by pipeline to its Ras Tanurah port on the Persian Gulf, from where the oil is shipped on small vessels to the Gulf of Oman, and from there, it gets transferred to bigger tankers.

However, while Persian Gulf flows increase, flows of Saudi oil from the Red Sea port of Yanbu have been compromised by the latest barrage of strikes on Saudi targets by Yemen’s Houthi group. This weekend saw a series of attacks, including on targets in Riyadh and another strike on the port of Yanbu, which became Saudi Arabia’s primary outlet for crude oil after the Hormuz freeze.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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