Commercial vessel traffic through the strait of Hormuz remained severely constrained on 26 August with Iran continuing to attack vessels in the waterway while joint Iranian-Omani talks on managing ship traffic continue.
A total of 12 vessels transited through the strait of Hormuz on 26 August, split between seven outbound transits — including five tankers — and five inbound transits, including two tankers, according to data from maritime security firm Windward. The transits occurred mostly on the northern Iranian-preferred lane.
This puts vessel traffic through the strait just under 10pc of the normal traffic levels prior to the 28 February US-Israel attack on Iran that prompted Iran to declare the waterway closed.
Iran attacked Kuwait's state-owned oil products tanker the Al Salam II on 26 August while it was attempting to exit the strait of Hormuz, data from the UK Maritime Trade Organization (UKMTO) shows, likely through the US-assisted southern traffic lane.
Two Indian-flagged cargo vessels exited the strait on the southern lane, and the tanker Sela exited through an unconfirmed lane, with all remaining transits taking place on the northern lane.
Windward tracked a US Treasury-sanctioned medium range product tanker crossing the strait of Hormuz outbound, loaded with an estimated 185,000 bl of Iranian fuel oil, Kpler data shows, with the vessel signaling Oman as its next destination. The tanker is flying a false Nicaraguan flag, data from the International Maritime Organization shows, which is illegal under international law.
Data from vessel information firm TankerTrackers.com shows that around 3.7mn b/d have been getting through the strait of Hormuz on average over the last seven days, while data from vessel tracking firm Vortexa places the monthly average for August for the strait around 3.5mn b/d — both significantly lower than the 10mn b/d claimed by US officials. Prior to the joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran which prompted Iran to declare the strait of Hormuz closed, around 23mn b/d of crude, refined products and natural gas flowed through the narrow waterway on average, data from Vortexa show.
The US Central Command, which oversees US forces in the Middle East, claimed in a UKMTO notice that the US facilitated 37 vessel transits through the strait of Hormuz on 25-26 August, a figure which was much lower than publicly available information shows and that could not be corroborated independently. Centcom did not respond to request for comment from Argus to provide additional details on the transits.
