Over the past 24 hours, 12 tankers passed through the Strait of Hormuz, Novaya Gazeta Europe calculated using data from the Strait of Hormuz web map and the Vessel Finder ship tracker.
Over the past five days, the strait’s traffic capacity has increased significantly. On March 25, four tankers passed through it, while on March 30 only three vessels did.
According to data from Vessel Finder, at least eight vessels currently passing through the Strait of Hormuz are under U.S. sanctions: Sakai (Botswana flag), Star Line (Curacao), Royal H (Malawi), Pacific Explorer (Mali), Avon (Comoros), Gas Bella (Guinea), Elpis (Comoros), and Uma (Guinea). Almost all of these tankers were sanctioned for transporting Iranian oil, as well as under counterterrorism measures.
The other ships passing through the strait that are not under sanctions are linked to India or China.
At least five tankers linked to Russia’s “shadow fleet” are currently near the strait. They are likely waiting for permission to pass through Iranian waters. According to Izvestia, Iranian authorities will soon allow three Russian vessels to pass.
On the evening of April 2, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said that the Strait of Hormuz is open to Russian ships.
As Bloomberg writes, vessels not linked to the United States and Israel may pass through the strait if they pay a fee in yuan and cryptocurrency and fly the flag of a country friendly to Tehran. The northern route through Iranian waters is considered the “safest,” where ships are escorted by the IRGC; a French container ship recently used it. That vessel became the first European ship to cross the strait after the start of the war in the Middle East.
The second route runs through Omani waters. On April 2, three liquefied natural gas tankers owned by Oman passed through it. Bloomberg writes that Iran is now developing a protocol with that country to monitor ship traffic through the strait.