The number of tankers traversing the Strait of Hormuz has dropped to the lowest in two months amid renewed attacks on vessels in the waterway—right after tanker-tracking outlets said oil flows out of Hormuz are back to pre-war levels.
“Crude crossing the strait fell 27% from a wartime high the week before, to at least 10.1 million barrels a day,” two Kpler analysts reported, as the firm counted only seven commodity carriers traversing the strait on Tuesday. This was the lowest figure since late July, the analysts said.
“That is back to its September average, but 74% of its pre-war level,” the analysts noted, adding that the most marked decline in tanker movements was in vessels involved on ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman. STS is how Saudi Arabia has ramped up its exports of crude—a move hailed as instrumental in the recovery of overall oil flows out of the Persian Gulf.
For most of September, Kpler was also reporting lower energy commodity flows out of Hormuz, based on a moving average, but towards the end of the month, the firm said flows were improving, gradually returning to levels from before the war, when Hormuz handled a fifth of global oil flows and a significant chunk of LNG flows, as well.
Meanwhile, between September 28 and October 2, there were at least 12 attacks on tankers carrying crude oil, liquid petroleum gas, and liquefied natural gas, Reuters reported today, citing information from the Joint Maritime Information Center, which is led by the U.S. Navy.
“These actions continue to demonstrate Iran’s intent to assert presence along key transit lanes and maintain pressure on transiting vessels,” said the JMIC in a statement. The number of attacks on tankers is the highest since the war began at the end of February, the data showed.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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