Ras Tanura
58% of normal port calls
Gulf ports now: who is still shipping
Ports inside the Strait of Hormuz are handling a smaller share of their normal traffic than ports outside it, IMF PortWatch data shows. Oil and gas terminals inside the Gulf are at 28% of their pre-crisis port calls (estimated exports 12%) and container ports such as Jebel Ali at 27%, against 71% for ports outside the strait, including the outlets of the Hormuz bypass pipelines.
28%
of normal port calls at oil and gas terminals inside the Gulf
12 ports combined · exports 12% of normal
27%
at container and general ports inside the Gulf
7 ports combined · 14.5 calls a day vs 54.6
71%
at ports outside the strait
6 ports combined · exports 51% of normal
1%
of normal tanker tonnage through the strait
7 days to 27 Sep (PortWatch)
By port: Ras Tanura 58%, Ras Laffan 29%, Jebel Ali 18%, Fujairah 66%, Yanbu (King Fahd Port) 5% of normal port calls. Last 30 days of IMF PortWatch data against the year before the crisis (28 February 2025 to 27 February 2026). Combined figures add up port calls at every tracked port in the group, so busy ports weigh more.
Inside vs outside the strait: why the Hormuz bypass pipelines matter
Oil & LNG →Every port on the Persian Gulf coast, from Kuwait's Mina al Ahmadi to Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura and Qatar's Ras Laffan, reaches the open sea only through the Strait of Hormuz, 21 nautical miles (39 km) wide at its narrowest. About 20.9 million barrels of oil a day crossed it in the first half of 2025 (EIA, 3 Mar 2026). Ports on the far side can load ships without crossing it: Fujairah and Khor Fakkan on the UAE's east coast, Sohar and Duqm in Oman, Chabahar in Iran and Yanbu on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast.
Two pipelines link Gulf oil fields to those outside ports. Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline to Yanbu carries 5 million barrels a day by design and 7 million with a temporary conversion (EIA, 16 Jun 2025), although Yanbu's terminals cap sustainable exports at about 4.5–5 million b/d (Kpler). The UAE's Habshan–Fujairah line is rated at 1.5 million b/d and loaded 1.82 million in April 2026 (Kpler). The EIA puts their combined bypass capacity at about 4.7 million b/d (EIA, 3 Mar 2026), and the IEA says 3.5–5.5 million b/d is usable (IEA): a fraction of what normally crosses the strait.
The bypass is exposed too. Drone attacks halted the East-West pipeline and Yanbu loadings on 13 September; pumping restarted at a low rate on 22 September, with Aramco aiming for 4 million b/d (Reuters via Hydrocarbon Processing, 22 Sep 2026). Kpler satellite images on 27 September showed all seven berths at Yanbu and Al Muajjiz open (CNN, 29 Sep 2026). PortWatch data for Yanbu runs to 25 September 2026, so a recovery may not show yet.
Inside the Gulf, loading at Kharg Island's western terminal, Iran's main crude outlet, halted from 18 July until 12 August (The National, citing Windward and TankerTrackers, 16 Aug 2026), and Iranian ports have been under a US naval blockade since 14 July (Wikipedia). QatarEnergy, which ships LNG from Ras Laffan, extended force majeure on 28 September: through November for buyers in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and to early December for Italy's Edison (The National, 28 Sep 2026).
Hormuz bypass pipelines
| Pipeline | Outlet | Capacity |
|---|---|---|
| East-WestSaudi Arabia | Yanbu, Red Sea | 5 mb/d7 mb/d temporary |
| Habshan–FujairahUAE | Fujairah, Gulf of Oman | 1.5 mb/d1.82 mb/d in Apr 2026 |
mb/d = million barrels a day. Sources: EIA, Kpler.
Ships running dark. PortWatch sees only ships broadcasting AIS, and many tankers in the Gulf now switch it off (Windward). So PortWatch figures for terminals inside the Gulf likely understate what is loaded there: Kpler, which also tracks dark ships, put oil and product flows through Hormuz at 13.1 million b/d in the week to about 27 September, just under 80% of the pre-war level (CNN, 29 Sep 2026).
Oil and gas terminals inside the Gulf
Compare all ports →Crude, LNG and product export terminals whose cargoes must cross the Strait of Hormuz. Together they handled 12.8 port calls a day in the last 30 days of data, 28% of the 45.0 a day before the crisis. Bars show weekly port calls over the last 30 weeks, with the latest four highlighted; the dashed line is the pre-crisis weekly average.
Juaymah
3% of normal port calls
Jubail
26% of normal port calls
Ras Laffan
29% of normal port calls
Mesaieed (Umm Said)
47% of normal port calls
Mina al Ahmadi
0% of normal port calls
Umm Qasr
42% of normal port calls
Kharg Island
0.2 port calls a day (0.1 before)
Bandar-e Pars (Assaluyeh)
9% of normal port calls
Ruwais
10% of normal port calls
Das Island
88% of normal port calls
Sitrah
39% of normal port calls
Container and general ports inside the Gulf
Compare all ports →Container and general cargo ports inside the Gulf, including Jebel Ali, the Middle East's largest container port. Together they handled 14.5 port calls a day in the last 30 days of data, 27% of the 54.6 a day before the crisis.
Jebel Ali
18% of normal port calls
Khalifa Port
22% of normal port calls
Hamad Port
34% of normal port calls
Dammam
29% of normal port calls
Shahid Rajaee (Bandar Abbas)
26% of normal port calls
Sharjah
47% of normal port calls
Mina Saqr
55% of normal port calls
Ports outside the strait (bypass routes)
Compare all ports →Ports that ships can reach without crossing the strait, including the outlets of the East-West and Habshan–Fujairah pipelines. Together they handled 16.1 port calls a day in the last 30 days of data, 71% of the 22.7 a day before the crisis.
Fujairah
66% of normal port calls
Khor Fakkan
1.8 port calls a day (1.0 before)
Sohar
82% of normal port calls
Duqm
1.7 port calls a day (1.0 before)
Yanbu (King Fahd Port)
5% of normal port calls
Chabahar
0.2 port calls a day (0.3 before)
Gulf ports status: every port compared with before the crisis
Daily averages from IMF PortWatch: the year before the crisis against the last 30 days of data for each port. Exports are estimated metric tonnes. Ships waiting are commercial ships stationary in our matching live AIS area now, where we have one.
| Port | Calls/day before | Last 30 days | Change | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oil and gas terminals inside the Gulf | ||||||||
| Ras TanuraSaudi Arabia | 1.5 | 0.9 | −42% | |||||
| JuaymahSaudi Arabia | 2.5 | 0.1 | −97% | |||||
| JubailSaudi Arabia | 6.5 | 1.7 | −74% | |||||
| Ras LaffanQatar | 4.8 | 1.4 | −71% | |||||
| Mesaieed (Umm Said)Qatar | 2.2 | 1.0 | −53% | |||||
| Mina al AhmadiKuwait | 1.4 | 0.0 | −100% | |||||
| Umm QasrIraq | 8.6 | 3.6 | −58% | |||||
| Kharg IslandIran | 0.1 | 0.2 | +115%low base | |||||
| Bandar-e Pars (Assaluyeh)Iran | 8.0 | 0.7 | −91% | |||||
| RuwaisUnited Arab Emirates | 3.6 | 0.4 | −90% | |||||
| Das IslandUnited Arab Emirates | 1.3 | 1.1 | −12% | |||||
| SitrahBahrain | 4.5 | 1.7 | −61% | |||||
| Container and general ports inside the Gulf | ||||||||
| Jebel AliUnited Arab Emirates | 24.8 | 4.6 | −82% | |||||
| Khalifa PortUnited Arab Emirates | 10.0 | 2.2 | −78% | |||||
| Hamad PortQatar | 3.2 | 1.1 | −66% | |||||
| DammamSaudi Arabia | 5.6 | 1.6 | −71% | |||||
| Shahid Rajaee (Bandar Abbas)Iran | 2.7 | 0.7 | −74% | |||||
| SharjahUnited Arab Emirates | 3.8 | 1.8 | −53% | |||||
| Mina SaqrUnited Arab Emirates | 4.5 | 2.5 | −45% | |||||
| Ports outside the strait (bypass routes) | ||||||||
| FujairahUnited Arab Emirates | 10.3 | 6.8 | −34% | |||||
| Khor FakkanUnited Arab Emirates | 1.0 | 1.8 | +81%low base | |||||
| SoharOman | 6.6 | 5.4 | −18% | |||||
| DuqmOman | 1.0 | 1.7 | +78%low base | |||||
| Yanbu (King Fahd Port)Saudi Arabia | 3.5 | 0.2 | −95% | |||||
| ChabaharIran | 0.3 | 0.2 | −11%low base | |||||
Change compares the last 30 days of data with the daily average from 28 February 2025 to 27 February 2026. A dash means PortWatch has no pre-crisis figure for that port; "low base" marks ports that averaged under one call a day before the crisis, where a few ships swing the change widely. On small screens, export and date columns are hidden; open a port for its full history.
Tanker tonnage through the strait
Oil & LNG →Tanker deadweight tonnage crossing the Strait of Hormuz per day (million tonnes), last 120 days.
7-day averagePre-crisis average
Source: IMF PortWatch (carrying capacity of tankers transiting, not cargo carried).
Daily tanker tonnage, last 14 days of data
| Date | Tanker transits | Tanker deadweight |
|---|---|---|
| 27 September 2026 | 1 | 9k t |
| 26 September 2026 | 1 | 15k t |
| 25 September 2026 | 2 | 5k t |
| 24 September 2026 | 3 | 56k t |
| 23 September 2026 | 1 | — |
| 22 September 2026 | 1 | 40k t |
| 21 September 2026 | 0 | — |
| 20 September 2026 | 0 | — |
| 19 September 2026 | 1 | 3k t |
| 18 September 2026 | 2 | 7k t |
| 17 September 2026 | 0 | — |
| 16 September 2026 | 0 | — |
| 15 September 2026 | 1 | — |
| 14 September 2026 | 0 | — |
18k t/day
tanker deadweight through the strait, 7-day average
1% of the 2.2m t a day before the crisis
15k t/day
30-day average
to 27 September 2026
Deadweight is the most a ship can carry, so this measures tanker capacity crossing the strait, not oil on board. It links the ports above: most of that capacity serves the terminals inside the Gulf. Daily transit counts · oil and LNG flows.
About the port data
Methodology →- Source. Port figures come from IMF PortWatch, which estimates port activity from satellite AIS ship-position data. They are estimates, not customs or port-authority statistics.
- Port calls are visits by ships to a port, as PortWatch detects them from AIS. Tanker calls are the subset made by tankers.
- Exports and imports are PortWatch's estimates of cargo loaded and unloaded, in metric tonnes.
- Lag. PortWatch publishes with a lag of several days, so the newest figures here run to 25 September 2026. We show the latest date for every port.
- Before and now. "Before" is the daily average from 28 February 2025 to 27 February 2026, the year before the crisis began on 28 February 2026. "Now" is the average over the last 30 days of data for each port.
- Dark ships. Ships that switch off AIS are not counted, so falls at some terminals partly reflect ships running dark rather than cargo not moving.
- Ships waiting now is our own live AIS count of commercial ships stationary in the matching anchorage area. We have live areas for ports near the strait only. Where ships are waiting.
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.