Hormuz traffic falls to one as US-Iran fighting escalates
Just one oil tanker crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, the lowest daily total since May 7, according to Kpler ship-tracking data, as US strikes on Iran entered a 13th consecutive night and oil prices climbed back to $100 a barrel.
Kpler data showed that only one tanker exited the strait on July 23, down from three the previous day, while no tankers entered the waterway.
The sole crossing was the New Giant, a very large crude carrier carrying 2 million barrels of Iraqi Basrah crude, which is due to arrive at China’s Rizhao port in mid-August.
The sharp decline underscores the continued disruption to one of the world’s busiest oil shipping routes despite ongoing US military operations aimed at restoring navigation.
Traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, meanwhile, increased. Kpler recorded 32 commodity tanker crossings on Thursday, up from 26 a day earlier.
Fourteen tankers entered the Red Sea and 18 exited into the Gulf of Aden, including nine crude carriers—two of them Chinese supertankers bound for China.