Recent incidents, including attacks on tankers, have heightened tensions, prompting regional powers like Qatar to seek resolution
Photo : AP
Six months into the US-Israel war on Iran, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz continues to cause one of the most severe disruptions to maritime shipping in decades. Traffic through the 33 km chokepoint has fallen from more than 100 vessels a day before the war to about five, severely disrupting the movement of oil, gas and other goods around the world.
Qatar and other regional powers sought a way out of the conflict with Iran on Thursday, as another tanker attack was reported in the strait and Tehran rejected the Trump administration’s latest sanctions.
Meanwhile, Israel continued its attacks in Gaza and Lebanon, adding to tensions across the wider Middle East.
Tanker Hit in Strait of Hormuz
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Organisation (UKMTO) said on Thursday it had received a report that an oil tanker had been hit in the Strait of Hormuz. The British military-run agency said local authorities reported that the vessel was struck by an unknown projectile on Tuesday in waters between Oman and Iran.
The vessel caught fire, but the fire was later extinguished. All crew members were reported safe and there were no reports of environmental damage. An investigation is under way.
The incident follows an attack on a cargo ship transiting the waterway last week that killed one crew member. Traffic through the strait has continued to decline this week, despite US efforts to help escort vessels along the Omani side of the waterway.
Kpler, a shipping data and analytics company, said only five ships made confirmed crossings on Tuesday, down from seven the previous day.
That represents a dramatic fall from more than 130 vessels a day before the war. All five ships used the unilateral route Iran has designated for shipping, according to Kpler.
The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints. More than one-third of global seaborne crude oil and nearly one-third of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) shipments pass through the waterway, along with significant volumes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and refined petroleum products.
Before the war, about 100 ships travelled through the strait each day, more than half of them tankers carrying tens of millions of barrels of oil.
“That’s probably the first time we’ve really seen a major constriction of a choke point,” Richard Matthews, director of consultancy and research at Gibson Shipbrokers, told Al Jazeera. He said the key difference between Hormuz and other major maritime chokepoints was that “there is no alternative maritime route”.
“There are some pipelines, but there’s no alternative, which is why it’s been so significant in terms of cargo volume,” he added.
Traffic Falls by About 95%
Shipping through Hormuz collapsed within days of US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28. After Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced the closure of the strait on 2 March, traffic fell to an average of five vessels a day and remained at that level through an April ceasefire and the US blockade of Iranian ports.
A temporary agreement on 17 June lifted the daily average to about 20 vessels, but that was still only one-fifth of normal traffic.
When the US resumed its blockade on 14 July, traffic fell back to about five vessels a day.
From 15 July to 23 August, an average of about five vessels a day passed through the strait — an almost 95% decline from pre-war levels.
The remaining traffic consists largely of tankers travelling under naval escort or with their tracking systems switched off.
