Iranupdated 2h ago3 min read
Ship Traffic Through Strait of Hormuz Drops to Two-Month Low After Tanker Attacks
Vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz fell to seven, the lowest in over two months. Attacks on tankers amid the US-Israel conflict disrupted flows and raised transit risk in Hormuz.
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Traffic dips, attacks rise
Ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz fell to seven commodity vessels on Tuesday, the lowest figure in more than two months, after attacks on tankers in the key waterway reached their highest last week since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran. Kpler analysts Emmanuel Belostrino and Yui Torikata wrote that crude crossing the strait fell 27% from a wartime high the week before, to at least 10.1 million barrels a day, and they said that level was back to its September average. The Reuters report also said the figures exclude vessels crossing with their Automatic Identification System transponders turned off to avoid detection, and it noted that LSEG data showed eight vessels on Tuesday, evenly divided between entries and exits.
The Reuters account said projectiles struck a tanker 51 nautical miles north of Qatar’s Madinat ash Shamal, with casualties reported, while the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency said the incident occurred on Wednesday. The Reuters report added that the number of vessels transiting the strait edged up to 10 on Wednesday, but remained well short of the daily tally of more than 20 on Sunday and Monday.
Iran and Oman set routes
Iran and Oman agreed on the geographical coordinates of designated "safe" transit routes for ships entering and leaving the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Wednesday (Oct. 7, 2026).
Baghaei said the two countries also agreed on how the route coordinates would be communicated to the relevant international maritime body, according to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency.
The Gulf News account said the agreement did not by itself mean Hormuz was fully open or that commercial vessels had an unconditional guarantee of safe passage, and it said Iran had previously said reopening depended on wider conditions.
Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, a senior adviser to the commander-in-chief of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, told Fars News Agency that transit routes in the Strait of Hormuz deemed "illegal" by Tehran would soon be blocked.
The Gulf News report said Naqdi explicitly referenced an alternative southern shipping pathway flanking Oman’s coast and claimed these "few routes" were created by blasting and damaging rocky passages.
What the shift means
The BBC said the volume of oil flowing from the Middle East region had almost returned to pre-war levels, with Kpler reporting that in the final week of September daily oil flow reached 92% of its pre-war baseline despite continued restrictions Iran placed on vessels traveling through the Strait of Hormuz. The BBC attributed the rebounding flow to ships being escorted with US military assistance, shuttle tankers through the strait for transfer to different vessels, and bypassing the strait using pipelines, while it also said some experts questioned sustainability due to the risk of escalating Iranian attacks or a change in US policy. The BBC reported that about 40% of the total oil exported from the region in September bypassed the strait and exited via overland pipelines to ports on the Red Sea or the Gulf of Oman, up from 17% before the war, according to Kpler.
The BBC also said the US military had been supporting ships as they pass through the Strait of Hormuz since at least mid-June, and it quoted Martin Kelly, senior intelligence analyst at EOS Risk Group, saying US support was primarily "air support to ships". The BBC warned that ships moving through the US-recommended southern route near the coast of Oman continued to be targeted, and it said September saw the highest number of successful Iranian attacks on commercial shipping since March, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data conflict monitor.