Yanbu (King Fahd Port)
2% of normal exports
Port calls 5% of normal · data to 25 Sep
Oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz
AIS-visible tanker tonnage through the Strait of Hormuz is 0.8% of normal (IMF PortWatch, 7 days to 27 Sep), and 16 tankers crossed our counting line in the last 7 days. Estimates that include ships running dark are far higher: 13.1 million barrels a day in the latest week, just under 80% of the 17.1 mb/d pre-war level (CNN (Kpler data), 29 Sep). Before the crisis, about 20.9 million barrels of oil a day went through the strait, roughly a fifth of world consumption.
Oil tankers and gas carriers crossing Hormuz this week
All traffic data →0.8%
of normal tanker tonnage
7-day average to 27 Sep (IMF PortWatch)
18k t/day
tanker deadweight crossing, last 7 days
vs 2.2m t a day in the year before the crisis
16
tankers crossed in the last 7 days
2.3 a day, vs 47.6 before the crisis
1
LNG and LPG carriers crossed in 7 days
0 LNG · 1 LPG
AIS-visible crossings of our counting line; ships with AIS switched off are not counted, so these are a floor, not a total. In the last 7 days 16 commercial ships crossed inbound (westbound, into the Gulf) and 16 outbound (eastbound, to the Gulf of Oman), 32 in total. Their combined deadweight was 1.1m t: the most they could carry, not the cargo on board. The pre-crisis tanker figure is IMF PortWatch's daily average for the year before the crisis. How we count.
Tanker tonnage through the Strait of Hormuz
IMF PortWatchDeadweight tonnage of tankers crossing the strait each day, in million tonnes, last 120 days, against the average for the year before the crisis.
Daily7-day averagePre-crisis average
Source: IMF PortWatch, satellite AIS, latest data 27 Sep. Published with a lag of about 3–5 days. Deadweight is the carrying capacity of the tankers transiting, not the cargo on board, and ships running dark are not counted.
Tanker tonnage by day, last 28 days (table)
Pre-crisis average: 2.2m t a day. Last 7 days: 18k t a day. Last 30 days: 15k t a day.
| Date | Tanker deadweight | Tankers |
|---|---|---|
| 31 August 2026 | — | 1 |
| 1 September 2026 | 15k t | 1 |
| 2 September 2026 | 45k t | 1 |
| 3 September 2026 | 44k t | 1 |
| 4 September 2026 | — | 0 |
| 5 September 2026 | — | 0 |
| 6 September 2026 | 60k t | 2 |
| 7 September 2026 | 5k t | 2 |
| 8 September 2026 | — | 2 |
| 9 September 2026 | — | 0 |
| 10 September 2026 | — | 1 |
| 11 September 2026 | 82k t | 3 |
| 12 September 2026 | 5k t | 1 |
| 13 September 2026 | — | 1 |
| 14 September 2026 | — | 0 |
| 15 September 2026 | — | 1 |
| 16 September 2026 | — | 0 |
| 17 September 2026 | — | 0 |
| 18 September 2026 | 7k t | 2 |
| 19 September 2026 | 3k t | 1 |
| 20 September 2026 | — | 0 |
| 21 September 2026 | — | 0 |
| 22 September 2026 | 40k t | 1 |
| 23 September 2026 | — | 1 |
| 24 September 2026 | 56k t | 3 |
| 25 September 2026 | 5k t | 2 |
| 26 September 2026 | 15k t | 1 |
| 27 September 2026 | 9k t | 1 |
Crude vs products vs gas: which tankers are crossing
Ships waiting →Tanker crossings by cargo type
| Tanker type | Last 7 days | Last 30 days |
|---|---|---|
| Crude oil tankers | 0 | 2 |
| Product and chemical tankersRefined fuels such as diesel, petrol and jet fuel | 11 | 23 |
| LNG carriersLiquefied natural gas | 0 | 0 |
| LPG carriersLiquefied petroleum gas | 1 | 5 |
| Other or unclassified tankersNo detailed type in our ship data | 4 | 19 |
| All tankers | 16 | 49 |
AIS-visible crossings, counted once per ship and direction. Types come from ship registry data; bars show each type's share of tanker crossings in the last 7 days. How we classify ships.
Tankers in the region now
420
tankers visible
56
VLCCs
very large crude carriers
4
LNG carriers
20
LPG carriers
Their combined deadweight is 32.7m t. Tankers in the region may be waiting, empty or part-loaded, so this is not a measure of oil in transit. Where ships are waiting · live map.
Latest tanker crossings
Before the crisis: how much oil went through the Strait of Hormuz
Oil flow through Hormuz, million barrels a day
| Period | Crude and products (mb/d) |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 19.2 |
| 2021 | 19.7 |
| 2022 | 21.9 |
| 2023 | 21.8 |
| 2024 | 20.7 |
| First half of 2025 | 20.9 |
Source: US Energy Information Administration, World Oil Transit Chokepoints (updated 3 March 2026). By ship count, IMF PortWatch recorded 47.6 tanker transits a day in the year before the crisis.
Which countries depend on Hormuz oil
Asia buys most of it. In the first half of 2025, 89% of the crude oil and condensate moving through the strait went to Asian markets, and China, India, Japan and South Korea together took 74% (EIA, 3 Mar 2026). In 2024 the United States imported about 0.5 million barrels a day through Hormuz, about 7% of its crude imports and 2% of its petroleum consumption (EIA, 16 Jun 2025).
Which countries use the strait to export oil
Hormuz is the only sea route out of the Persian Gulf, so oil loaded at terminals inside the Gulf has to pass through it. The main exporters that ship oil through it are Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain (IEA, Feb 2026). Saudi Arabia and the UAE have the main pipelines that can carry some of their exports around the strait (EIA, 16 Jun 2025); see bypass pipelines below.
How much oil goes through the Strait of Hormuz now
Latest news →It depends on who is counting. Our AIS count sees only ships with transponders on; satellite AIS misses the same ships; cargo trackers also follow ships running dark.
| Measure | Latest figure | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Tanker crossingshormuz.now | 2.3 a day over 7 days, 5% of the pre-crisis 47.6 | Live |
| Tanker tonnageIMF PortWatch | 0.8% of normal: 18k t a day vs 2.2m t | 27 Sep |
| Oil and products through HormuzCNN (Kpler data) | 13.1 million barrels a day in the latest week, just under 80% of the 17.1 mb/d pre-war level | 29 Sep |
| Brent crudeCBS News | about $103–106 a barrel (27–29 Sep) | 29 Sep |
In late September, oil volumes had recovered much further than ship counts. Many of the ships still crossing do so under US naval coordination or with AIS switched off, and counts that rely on AIS, like ours, can miss real traffic by an order of magnitude. That is why our tanker count sits far below the volume estimates above (how we count).
- The maritime analytics firm Windward estimated that crude exports through the strait, excluding Iran's, were about 45% of pre-war levels in August, and that total transits including US-facilitated ones were about 16% of pre-war (Windward, 17 Sep 2026).
- US Central Command said on 16 September that the strait "remains open for transit" and that nearly one billion barrels of oil had passed through in recent months (RFE/RL via GlobalSecurity, 16 Sep 2026). That is an official US figure; independent trackers still put traffic well below pre-war levels.
Published estimates differ because they measure different things: crude only or crude plus products, with or without Iranian cargoes, weekly or monthly. We show only figures from named, dated sources and leave out estimates we could not confirm.
Latest energy updates
- QatarEnergy extends LNG force majeure through November and into early December as the disruption threatens winter supply. The National
- Saudi Arabia restarts the East-West oil pipeline at a low rate after drone attacks halted it on 13 September. Hydrocarbon Processing
Strait of Hormuz alternate routes: the bypass pipelines
Two main pipelines, in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, let Gulf oil skip the strait. Together they could carry about 4.7 million barrels a day (EIA, 3 Mar 2026), less than a quarter of the 20.9 mb/d that crossed Hormuz before the crisis. The IEA puts usable bypass capacity at 3.5–5.5 mb/d (IEA, Feb 2026). They carry crude oil, not LNG.
| Pipeline | Capacity |
|---|---|
| East-West pipelineSaudi Arabia · Yanbu port data | 5 mb/d design; 7 mb/d with temporary conversion |
| Habshan–Fujairah (ADCOP)UAE · Fujairah port data | 1.5 mb/d nameplate; about 1.8 mb/d maximum |
| Spare before the crisisBoth lines | about 2.6 mb/d unused |
Capacity figures: EIA, 16 Jun 2025, EIA, 3 Mar 2026 and Kpler.
East-West pipeline attack, September 2026. Drone attacks forced Saudi Arabia to shut the East-West pipeline and Yanbu loadings on 13 September. Pumping restarted at a low rate on 22 September, with Aramco aiming for 4 mb/d (Reuters via Hydrocarbon Processing, 22 Sep 2026). Satellite imagery analysed by Kpler on 27 September showed all seven berths at Yanbu and Al Muajjiz open (CNN, 29 Sep 2026).
Responsibility for the attacks is disputed: RFE/RL (16 Sep) cited Iran-aligned groups in Iraq, while CNN (29 Sep) cited the Houthis.
Bypass outlets now
Fujairah
82% of normal exports
Port calls 66% of normal · data to 25 Sep
Last 30 days of IMF PortWatch data vs the year before the crisis; bars are weekly port calls, the dashed line the pre-crisis weekly average. PortWatch port figures are estimates from satellite AIS, published with a lag of about 3–5 days, so they can differ from cargo-tracking estimates.
Energy export terminals inside the Gulf
All 25 ports →Oil and gas loaded at these terminals has to cross the Strait of Hormuz. Port calls in the last 30 days of IMF PortWatch data as a share of the year before the crisis; bars show weekly calls, the dashed line the pre-crisis weekly average. Terminals with few calls a day swing widely in percentage terms.
Ras Tanura
58% of normal port calls
0.9 calls a day vs 1.5 before · data to 25 Sep
Juaymah
3% of normal port calls
0.1 calls a day vs 2.5 before · data to 25 Sep
Ras Laffan
29% of normal port calls
1.4 calls a day vs 4.8 before · data to 25 Sep
Mina al Ahmadi
0% of normal port calls
0.0 calls a day vs 1.4 before · data to 25 Sep
Kharg Island
0.2 port calls a day
0.1 a day before the crisis, too few for a percentage · data to 25 Sep
Das Island
88% of normal port calls
1.1 calls a day vs 1.3 before · data to 25 Sep
PortWatch port figures are estimates from satellite AIS, published with a lag of about 3–5 days; ships loading with AIS switched off are missed. Gulf ports tracker.
Hormuz LNG: gas exports through the strait
Ras Laffan →1
AIS-visible gas carrier crossing, 7 days
0 LNG, 1 LPG; 0 LNG in 30 days
About a fifth of the world's liquefied natural gas trade normally passes through the Strait of Hormuz, most of it from Qatar. Qatar's LNG exports remain far below normal: it shipped 18 LNG cargoes in the first six months of the war, against 509 a year earlier (Euronews, 29 Sep 2026).
The National reported on 28 September that QatarEnergy had extended force majeure on deliveries: cancellations for buyers in Pakistan and Bangladesh run through November, Italy's Edison is suspended until early December, and at least one Indian buyer is also affected (The National, 28 Sep 2026).
The bypass pipelines carry crude oil, not LNG, so Qatar's gas exports depend on carriers getting through the strait. 4 LNG carriers are visible in the region on AIS right now.
Strait of Hormuz oil prices, gas prices and insurance
Brent crude since the crisis began
- 8 March 2026: Brent rose above $100 a barrel for the first time in four years (Wikipedia).
- Peak: physical Dated Brent reached an all-time high of $144 a barrel (IEA, 22 Jun 2026).
- 9 September: Dated Brent at $113.48 (IEA Oil Market Report, 11 Sep 2026).
- 26 September: Brent was at about $104 a barrel as President Trump rejected Iran's seven-day reopening plan (CBS News, 26 Sep 2026).
- Latest: about $103–106 a barrel (27–29 Sep), according to CBS News, 29 Sep.
Pump prices for gasoline and diesel follow the global crude price, so a higher Brent price reaches drivers even in countries that buy little oil through Hormuz. The United States, for example, got only about 2% of its petroleum consumption through the strait in 2024 (EIA, 16 Jun 2025). For natural gas, QatarEnergy's extended force majeure threatens winter supply for buyers in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Italy (The National, 28 Sep 2026).
3–10% of hull value
war-risk insurance for a Hormuz transit, July 2026
against about 0.25% before the war: $3–10 million for a $100 million tanker instead of about $250,000 (Marsh, via The National, 17 Jul 2026)
426million barrels
of emergency oil stocks committed by IEA members
The largest collective action in the agency's history and its sixth since 1974: agreed at 400 million barrels on 11 March, confirmed at 426 million on 19 March, with the US contributing 172.2 million and Japan 79.8 million (IEA, 19 Mar 2026)
Economic impact: what happens if the disruption lasts
Crisis timeline →A common question is what happens if the Strait of Hormuz stays closed. Our current status reading is Restricted (Severely restricted), and the effects depend on how much oil and gas keeps moving. The sourced facts point both ways.
What limits the damage
- Oil is still moving, much of it with AIS off or under US naval coordination. The latest estimate is 13.1 million barrels a day in the latest week, just under 80% of the 17.1 mb/d pre-war level, according to CNN (Kpler data), 29 Sep.
- Saudi Arabia and the UAE can export part of their oil through the bypass pipelines, about 4.7 mb/d of capacity (EIA), and the East-West line restarted at a low rate on 22 September after drone attacks halted it on 13 September.
- IEA members committed a record 426 million barrels of emergency stocks for release in March.
What makes it worse the longer it lasts
- The pipelines cannot replace the strait: their capacity is less than a quarter of the 20.9 mb/d that crossed before the crisis, and the East-West line has itself been attacked.
- Emergency stocks are finite. The 426 million barrels committed equal roughly 20 days of pre-crisis Hormuz flow (426 ÷ 20.9 mb/d, our arithmetic from the IEA and EIA figures above).
- Asia is most exposed: 89% of the crude crossing the strait went there in the first half of 2025 (EIA).
- The bypass routes carry oil, not LNG. QatarEnergy's force majeure now runs into early December, which threatens winter gas supply for buyers in South Asia and Europe (The National, 28 Sep 2026).
- Insurance is costly: war-risk cover was quoted at 3–10% of hull value in July, against 0.25% before the war (Marsh).
We do not forecast prices or reopening dates. For the talks and the latest attacks, see today's news and the crisis timeline.
Oil and gas timeline of the crisis
Full timeline →- Energy
Kpler puts Hormuz oil flows at 13.1 mb/d, against 17.1 mb/d pre-war
Kpler estimates that crude oil and refined products moving through the strait averaged 13.1 million barrels a day in the latest week, against 17.1 million before the war on its measure. Oil volumes have recovered far more than AIS-visible ship counts. CNN
- Energy
QatarEnergy extends LNG force majeure into December
Cancellations for buyers in Pakistan and Bangladesh run through November, and deliveries to Italy's Edison are suspended until early December. The National
- Energy
Saudi Arabia's East-West oil pipeline restarts at a low rate
Pumping resumes nine days after drone attacks halted the line, with Aramco aiming for 4 million barrels a day. Hydrocarbon Processing
- Energy
Drone attacks halt Saudi Arabia's East-West oil pipeline
Pumping on the pipeline, the main export route that bypasses Hormuz, and loadings at the Red Sea port of Yanbu stop after Iran-aligned drone attacks. Reports differ on who carried them out: RFE/RL cites groups in Iraq, CNN the Houthis. Hydrocarbon Processing
- Energy
Loading halts at Kharg Island's western terminal for 25 days
Tankers stop loading at the western terminal on Iran's Kharg Island on 18 July; loading resumes on 12 August, according to Windward and TankerTrackers data. The National
- Energy
IEA confirms a record 426-million-barrel emergency oil stock release
Member countries' contributions include 172.2 million barrels from the US and 79.8 million from Japan. It is the agency's sixth collective action since 1974. IEA
Track the ships behind the numbers
- Daily traffic · How many ships and tankers crossed each day, with history since 2019 and an IMF PortWatch comparison.
- Ships in the strait now · Tankers waiting and stranded by port area, flag and destination.
- Gulf ports · Port calls and exports at 25 Gulf and bypass ports.
- Live ship map · Tankers and LNG carriers visible on AIS in the region, refreshed every 20 seconds.
More: Strait of Hormuz FAQ · Map and geography · How we count crossings
Sources
- EIA, World Oil Transit Chokepoints (updated 3 March 2026)
- EIA, Today in Energy: oil through Hormuz and bypass pipelines (16 June 2025)
- EIA, Today in Energy: LNG through Hormuz (24 June 2025)
- IEA, Strait of Hormuz factsheet (February 2026)
- IEA, collective action to release oil stocks (19 March 2026)
- IEA commentary on oil supply after the Hormuz shock (22 June 2026)
- IEA Oil Market Report (11 September 2026)
- Kpler, Beyond Hormuz: the pipeline routes (undated; accessed 29 September 2026)
- Hydrocarbon Processing (Reuters), Saudi Arabia restarts East-West pipeline (22 September 2026)
- CNN, oil through the Strait of Hormuz (Kpler data) (29 September 2026)
- Windward, Iran's Hormuz toll regime (17 September 2026)
- RFE/RL via GlobalSecurity, CENTCOM on Hormuz (16 September 2026)
- The National, Qatar extends LNG force majeure (28 September 2026)
- Euronews, Middle East oil exports and LNG traffic (29 September 2026)
- The National, war-risk premiums (Marsh) (17 July 2026)
- CBS News live updates (26 September 2026)
- Wikipedia, 2026 Strait of Hormuz crisis (accessed 29 September 2026)
- IMF PortWatch: tanker tonnage, port calls and the pre-crisis ship baseline
- Live tanker and LNG counts: hormuz.now AIS data (methodology)
Live AIS data as of · 1,505 vessels visible in the region. Counts are AIS-visible only and miss ships running dark. How we count.