Vessels trickle through Strait of Hormuz as Middle East conflict persists
XLE•Traffic remains far below prewar levels
Before the US-Israeli war with Iran started on February 28, the strait typically handled about 125 large, commercial vessels per day, including tankers, gas carriers, bulkers and container vessels.
Saudi crude exports recover in September
The attacks by the Houthis on Saudi Aramco's East-West pipeline have prompted the state energy firm to increase exports through the Strait of Hormuz this month and next after halting some shipments via Yanbu.
That enabled exports from the OPEC kingpin to recover to over 4 million barrels per day (bpd) so far in September after slumping to 2.4 million bpd in August, the lowest since at least 2013, according to provisional data from Kpler.
A total of 13 tankers, mostly very large crude carriers carrying 34 million barrels of crude, exited the strait in the week of September 13, Kpler data showed. Saudi Arabia accounted for half of the exports, while 35% of the volume came from Iraq.
