Strait of Hormuz sees only four ship movements as traffic sharply declines

The volume of vessels passing the Strait of Hormuz, a key conduit for roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and LNG supplies, fell to single-digit levels on Tuesday. Official data recorded only two ships departing and two arriving, none of which were very large crude carriers or LNG tankers. The very large gas carrier Salute, carrying around 470,000 barrels of LPG, exited via the Iranian-controlled channel, while the Panamax-sized tanker Nautilus, loaded with about 510,000 barrels of naphtha, left on an unidentified “dark” route.

Both inbound ships were laden—a short-range dirty products tanker and a dry bulk carrier—each using the Iranian route. Some vessels may be sailing with transponders turned off, so the count could be incomplete. Meanwhile, traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait remained relatively steady at 22 vessels.