Traffic Through Strait of Hormuz Decreases Amid Ongoing Middle East Tensions

A dozen commodity vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, a decrease from 35 the previous weekend, according to shipping data released on Monday. Tensions in the Gulf remain high as the US and Iran are in a stalemate. The visible traffic through the strait, which is responsible for transporting a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas, has significantly declined. However, Middle Eastern producers are still exporting oil using tankers with their transponders turned off. Among the trackable vessels, four ships—two tankers carrying refined oil products and two empty carriers for bulk goods and gas—exited the strait on Sunday, while two small oil tankers entered the Gulf. On Saturday, five vessels left the Gulf carrying agricultural products, liquefied petroleum gas, and fertilizer, while an empty very large gas carrier entered. Prior to the US-Israeli conflict with Iran that began on February 28, the strait typically handled about 125 large commercial vessels daily, including tankers and container ships. Attacks by the Houthis on Saudi Aramco’s East-West pipeline have led the company to increase exports through the Strait of Hormuz this month and next, following a halt of some shipments via Yanbu. This has allowed exports from Saudi Arabia to recover to over 4 million barrels per day (bpd) in September, up from a low of 2.4 million bpd in August, the lowest level since at least 2013, according to Kpler data. In the week of September 13, 13 tankers, mostly very large crude carriers, exited the strait carrying 34 million barrels of crude. Saudi Arabia accounted for half of these exports, while 35% came from Iraq. Analysts from JPMorgan noted on September 18 that Middle East oil flows remain strong despite disruptions to Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline, with total oil flows averaging 17.1 million bpd over the past 10 days, just 6.1 million bpd below the 2025 average. They highlighted a significant increase in Saudi oil moving through the Strait of Hormuz, which averaged 2.9 million bpd over the past six days, compared to just 700,000 bpd in August.