Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has picked up over the past week but shipowners remain cautious about transiting, especially after the Thursday attack in the Gulf of Oman on a vessel that had just cleared the chokepoint.
On Friday morning local time, two tankers carrying crude were moving out of the Strait while four empty supertankers were traveling inbound near the Omani coast, according to vessel-tracking data monitored by Bloomberg.
While some traffic has been observed on Friday, the Thursday attack on the container ship Ever Lovely prompted some shipowners to pull back and wait for additional information about how safe transiting the Strait is.
Some ship owners and captains pulled back, shipowners told Bloomberg.
At least one Asia-based shipping company reversed earlier plans to have vessels transit the Strait and told staff to stay put, according to a message seen by Bloomberg News.
Meanwhile, the UN International Maritime Organization (IMO) paused vessel evacuation from the Persian Gulf in the wake of the attack on the ship, which did not transit under IMO’s evacuation framework.
“To ensure a coordinated approach and navigational safety, the evacuation plan will be paused until further clarity is obtained,” IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said on Thursday.
Despite the attack, traffic hasn’t stopped completely and the millions of barrels of oil that cleared the Strait of Hormuz over the past week raised market hopes that the worst of the supply disruption is over. Early on Friday, oil prices were headed for a weekly loss amid the tentative recovery of traffic.
However, uncertainties about the conditions of shipping prevail.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Thursday published a claim on Telegram that vessels in the southern corridor had been ordered to turn back. Maritime intelligence firm Windward identified five vessels exhibiting behavior consistent with Iran’s claim.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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