❗️Hormuz vessel traffic falls to lowest level in over two months

The number of vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz dropped to its lowest level in more than two months after tanker attacks in the strategic waterway reached their highest point last week since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran, according to shipping data.

Seven commodity vessels crossed the strait on Tuesday, marking the lowest daily total since 23 July, data from analytics firm Kpler showed.

"Crude crossing the strait fell 27% from a wartime high the week before, to ⁠at least 10.1 million barrels a day," Kpler analysts Emmanuel Belostrino and Yui Torikata wrote in a note on 6 October.

"That is back to its September average, but 74% of its pre-war level."

The analysts said most of the decline came from ship-to-ship (STS) transfers in the Gulf of Oman, where cargo is transferred between tankers.

Meanwhile, crude exports from the Gulf of Oman coast and the Red Sea climbed to 6.7 million barrels per day, more than double their pre-war levels, helping offset supply losses through Hormuz.

As a result, overall West Asian crude exports remained around pre-war levels, the analysts said.

The number of vessels crossing the strait rose slightly to 10 on Wednesday, but remained far below the more than 20 recorded on both Sunday and Monday. More vessels entered the waterway than exited over the previous two days.

The figures do not include vessels that switched off their Automatic Identification System transponders to avoid detection.

LSEG data covering all vessels crossing the strait showed eight on Tuesday, split evenly between entries and exits, down from 14 the previous day.

The vessels included five oil tankers and the liquefied natural gas tanker Al-Mafyar, which loaded at Ras Laffan in Qatar and was scheduled to sail to Port Qasim in Pakistan, LSEG said.

(Reuters)