NEW DELHI/SINGAPORE — Just three commodity vessels crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, the fewest daily transits since May, shipping data showed, with most ships halting or making U-turns after recent Iranian attacks on vessels and the resumption of a US blockade on Iran-related shipping.

The re-escalation in fighting between the US and Iran has once again largely stopped traffic through Hormuz, the world’s most important shipping route for oil and gas, driving up global energy prices.

Miraan, a sanctioned product tanker carrying fuel oil, and Norita, a small vessel carrying liquefied petroleum gas, exited the strait on Thursday via the Iranian route but stopped at the Gulf of Oman, where the US blockade is, Kpler data showed as of 07:13 a.m. Israel time on Friday.

Arolia, a bunkering tanker laden with Iraqi fuel oil that is used to refuel vessels at sea, made a U-turn to head back into the Gulf hours after it exited earlier on Friday, LSEG data showed.

On Wednesday, 11 vessels crossed the strait, a fraction of the average of 125 vessels that transited the waterway daily before the war.

There were no Very Large Crude Carriers or liquefied natural gas tankers passing through the........

© The Times of Israel