Ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has effectively come to a halt after a series of tanker attacks.
According to Reuters on the 17th local time, ship-tracking firm Kpler said only five cargo ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz on the 15th, and none on the 16th. The previous weekend, 31 ships had passed.
Ships that transited the strait on the 15th included a very large crude carrier (VLCC) that had turned off its automatic identification system (AIS) and an Indian-flagged very large gas carrier (VLGC) that used the Iranian route. Because some ships are sailing with AIS turned off, actual traffic may be higher than recorded.
Traffic dropped sharply after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said last week that three vessels operated by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) were attacked while underway. The UAE pointed to Iran as the perpetrator.
Before the United States and Israel began a war with Iran in February, more than 130 ships a day moved through the Strait of Hormuz. Current traffic is far lower than then.
With U.S.-Iran negotiations to end the war stalled, the United States is pressuring Tehran by saying it can maintain a maritime blockade indefinitely. Iran, meanwhile, is insisting that for ship traffic to resume, the United States must accept its demands, including compensation for war damage.
Before the war, the Strait of Hormuz was a key maritime logistics corridor through which about one-fifth of the world's seaborne crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments passed.