The number of ships that have transited the Strait of Hormuz dropped to a week-low on Tuesday, according to shipping data, as vessel owners continue to avoid the key chokepoint in the Middle East.
Only eight vessels moved in either direction at the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, the lowest number since August 5, and below the latest 10-day average of 12, per Kpler data cited by Reuters on Wednesday.
Traffic at the waterway, where some 20 million barrels of oil were flowing before the war, has continuously declined this week amid heightened security risks and uncertainties about any U.S.-Iran negotiations on a possible reopening of the Strait.
The U.S. and Iran have also offered contrasting claims about the navigability of the Strait of Hormuz, further clouding the view of ship owners and operators of how safe a transit could be.
Iran said on Tuesday that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed unless the United States ends the war and meets Tehran’s conditions, raising the bar for a deal that would restore more oil traffic through the key waterway.
Later on Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said that the United States had “total control over the Hormuz Strait,” in a claim that contrasts with Iran’s assertion that Tehran decides when and at what conditions the Strait would be closed or open.
“We own it,” President Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington.
The U.S. also claimed on Tuesday that the oil flows from the Middle East have hit, in total, pre-war levels, thanks to U.S. support for Hormuz traffic and some of the Gulf countries re-routing oil exports to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.
Oil flows from the Middle East have normalized, with Sunday traffic alone above pre-conflict averages, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said on Tuesday in a claim that appears to not be backed by ship-tracking data.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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