Iran has moved to ease the passage of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, according to CNN Arabic, in what the outlet describes as a response to the commander of US Central Command. CNN Arabic reports that the arrangement allowed one billion barrels of oil to cross the waterway.
The reported figure was also cited by the Saudi newspaper Sabaq, which quoted the CENTCOM commander as saying that more than 2,000 vessels had transited Hormuz and that a billion barrels of oil passed through over a two-month period. Asharq Al-Awsat, another regional outlet, reported a recovery in navigation through the strait.
The picture was not uniform across regional coverage. Other outlets described the opposite trend. One outlet reported a sharp drop in ship traffic through Hormuz amid Middle East tensions, while Erem News reported a slowdown in vessel transits as regional tensions continued.
Taken together, the reports point to a waterway whose traffic has been volatile, with some outlets describing a rebound and others a decline over the same period. The sources do not specify the exact dates covered by the one-billion-barrel figure, nor the period over which the 2,000-plus vessel transits were counted.
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow channel at the mouth of the Persian Gulf and a central route for global oil shipments. Any change in traffic there draws close attention from energy markets and from the naval forces that operate in the area.
What to watch next: whether shipping traffic through Hormuz holds at the higher levels described in some of the reports, or whether the slowdown reported by other outlets continues.
