Luojiashan tanker sits anchored in Muscat, as Iran vows to close the Strait of Hormuz, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Muscat, Oman, March 7, 2026. REUTERS\/Benoit Tessier<\/p>\n
Shipping\u00a0Traffic Through Hormuz Still Largely Halted<\/p>\n
LONDON, April 21 (Reuters)\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Shipping\u00a0traffic through\u00a0the<\/p>\n
remained broadly halted on Tuesday with only three ships passing the waterway in the past 24 hours,\u00a0shipping\u00a0data showed.<\/p>\n
A\u00a0U.S. blockade of Iranian ports\u00a0has infuriated Tehran, prompting it to maintain its own restrictions on the strait, which had been typically handling roughly one-fifth of the world\u2019s oil and liquefied natural gas supply.<\/p>\n
The Ean Spir products tanker, which had no known flag or known ownership, sailed through Hormuz on Tuesday after previously calling at an Iraqi port, ship tracking data on the MarineTraffic platform showed.<\/p>\n
The Lian Star cargo ship, which had no known flag or known ownership, also sailed through the strait from an Iranian port, the data showed.<\/p>\n
Separately, the Meda liquefied petroleum gas tanker, which had called at a United Arab Emirates port in the Gulf and also had no known flag or ownership, crossed the strait on Monday in its second attempt to leave the Gulf after turning back previously, according to satellite analysis from data analytics specialists SynMax.<\/p>\n
Those are a fraction of the 140 ships that sailed through daily before the U.S. and Israel\u2019s war on Iran began on February 28.<\/p>\n
More than a\u00a0dozen tankers passed through the strait\u00a0after Iran briefly declared it open on Friday, before Tehran announced it was closed on Saturday,\u00a0firing shots at vessels.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven vessels that seemingly check the publicly known boxes for successful transit through both blockades, can find themselves in danger and unable to pass,\u201d shipbroker BRS said in a note this week.<\/p>\n
A ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran appeared in jeopardy on Tuesday with Tehran not committing to join new peace talks and the\u00a0U.S. military saying it had seized a tanker linked to Iran in international waters.<\/p>\n
SEAFARERS\u2019 LIVES AT RISK<\/p>\n
Hundreds of ships and 20,000 seafarers remain stuck inside the Gulf unable to sail.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot put at risk the lives of the seafarers,\u201d Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general of the UN\u2019s\u00a0shipping\u00a0agency, told reporters on the sidelines of Singapore\u2019s maritime week on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw what happened last weekend, that on Friday, when some ships started to sail. Then there was an announcement that the strait was closed, and then some ships were actually targeted. Thankfully, we didn\u2019t have any casualties and there was no damage to the vessels.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s army said an Iranian tanker\u00a0had entered its territorial waters from the Arabian Sea on Monday with help from the Iranian Navy, despite what it described as repeated warnings and threats from the U.S. naval task force.<\/p>\n
Shipbroker BRS estimated that 61 non-Iran-related supertankers were trapped inside the Gulf at present, 50 of which were laden with cargoes of up to 2 million barrels each.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt a time when the world is desperate for crude oil, an additional 2 million barrels slipping out of the Middle East Gulf would be gratefully received,\u201d BRS said.<\/p>\n