According to shipping data from LSEG and Kpler, at least three tankers navigated through the Strait of Hormuz into the Gulf on Tuesday. Among them was the Panama-flagged Peace Gulf, which is en route to Hamriyah port in the United Arab Emirates. This vessel followed a new designated route within Iranian territorial waters, situated between Larak and Hormuz islands, a path mandated for all ships by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Prior to this, two tankers, the Rich Starry and the Elpis, both under US sanctions, also traversed the critical waterway. Since none of these three vessels were bound for Iranian ports, they remained unaffected by the US blockade that commenced on Monday.<\/p>\n
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on Monday that its forces initiated a naval blockade of maritime traffic to and from Iranian ports at 10 am ET (14:00 GMT). This action aligns with a presidential order from former President Trump. CENTCOM specified that the blockade would encompass \u201cvessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.\u201d In response, Tehran has issued warnings of potential retaliation, threatening to target ports in neighboring Gulf countries. Following US-Israeli attacks on February 28, Iran had effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz to most international shipping. The conflicting directives from Washington and Tehran have created significant confusion for global shipping operations in this vital energy chokepoint.<\/p>\n
Before the recent conflict, the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial conduit for one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas shipments, operated with two dedicated lanes, much like a divided highway. These included a 3.2km (2-mile) inbound lane, separated by a 3.2km buffer from an identical outbound lane. However, on March 2, Ebrahim Jabari, a senior adviser to the IRGC’s commander-in-chief, declared the strait \u201cclosed,\u201d warning that any vessel attempting to cross would be \u201cset ablaze\u201d by the IRGC and navy. The IRGC later issued a statement mandating a new navigation map for all vessels, citing \u201cthe likelihood of the presence of various types of anti-ship mines in the main traffic zone.\u201d The previously used area was designated as \u201crestricted.\u201d Vessels were subsequently instructed to enter the strait north of Larak Island and exit south of it, in coordination with the IRGC’s navy, until further notice.<\/p>\n
Since the onset of the conflict, ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has seen a drastic reduction, plummeting by over 95 percent. Kpler’s ship-tracking data reveals that only 279 ships transited the strait between February 28 and April 12, a stark contrast to the pre-war average of approximately 100 vessels per day. Despite a ceasefire between the US and Iran taking effect on April 8, only 45 ships have either entered or exited the strait since that date. The conflict has left hundreds of tankers and other vessels stranded in the Gulf, leading to a 20 percent cut in global oil and gas supply, marking the largest fuel supply disruption in history. Furthermore, the war has inflicted damage on Gulf energy production facilities and driven oil prices up by about 50 percent since hostilities began, severely impacting Asian buyers.<\/p>\n
Regarding attacks, Kpler’s ship tracking data indicates that 22 vessels have been targeted in the Strait of Hormuz since the war commenced. These attacks were distributed across various territorial waters: eight in the UAE, six in Oman, two each in Iraq and Qatar, and one each in Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.<\/p>\n
#StraitOfHormuz #MaritimeSecurity #GlobalShipping #OilAndGas #USIranTensions #NavalBlockade #IRGC #EnergyCrisis #Geopolitics #MiddleEastConflict<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
According to shipping data from LSEG and Kpler, at least three tankers navigated through the Strait of Hormuz into the Gulf on Tuesday. Among them was the Panama-flagged Peace Gulf, which is en route to Hamriyah port in the United Arab Emirates. This vessel followed a new designated route within Iranian territorial waters, situated between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iran_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}