A small number of non-Iranian ships have begun passage through the Strait of Hormuz after days in which the critical global oil chokepoint was nearly empty.
On Sunday, a Pakistani-flagged Aframax crude tanker named Karachi passed through the strait while broadcasting its location publicly, carrying crude oil from Abu Dhabi and becoming one of the first clearly identifiable non-Iranian vessels to transit the passage openly since shipping collapsed earlier this month.
Over the weekend, two Indian-flagged oil tankers, Shivalik and Nanda Devi, also transited the strait on their way to India. The ships reportedly turned off their trafficking signals during the crossing.
An Iranian supertanker was tracked in the waters north of the strait on Sunday, reportedly heading toward China. Several other Iranian ships were tracked moving through the area on Saturday.
Maritime tracking data shows that most of the limited traffic through the strait in recent days has been linked to Iran, including tankers connected to Tehran’s so-called “shadow fleet” or ships with commercial ties to China transporting Iranian oil, according to reports by Bloomberg.
Even when vessels are not flying Iran’s flag, many are operating through opaque ownership structures or under foreign flags, a long-standing tactic used by Iranian oil exporters to avoid sanctions and obscure the origin of cargo.
Ships traveling through the conflict-ridden waters are likely to disable their tracking systems and could face electronic interference, resulting in a blurred timeline of their travel.
In several recent 24-hour periods, tracking data showed fewer than a dozen commercial transits through the strait, mostly tied to Iran-related trade, while Western shipping companies have kept vessels away from the region. Data compiled by Bloomberg shows less than 10 ships moving out of the Persian Gulf per day, and fewer than five moving inbound per day.
The narrow waterway between Iran and Oman normally handles about one-fifth of the world’s oil shipments, making it one of the most strategically important shipping lanes globally.
Traffic collapsed after war broke out in Iran after joint strikes from Israel and the United States on Iranian infrastructure and leadership Feb. 28. Iranian forces warned ships not to enter the strait and launched attacks on multiple commercial vessels, causing shipowners and insurers to pull back from the route.
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Since then, Tehran has increasingly used the strait as leverage, allowing select vessels tied to friendly governments or the Iranian oil trade and barring U.S.-allied countries’ ships from transiting the waterway.
The result is a waterway that remains technically open but effectively controlled by Iran, with only a handful of ships moving through while hundreds of others wait outside the Persian Gulf for security conditions to improve.
