Hormuz Transit Drops 65% to 12 Vessels Over Weekend as Saudi Arabia Reroutes Exports Through Constrained Strait Following East-West Pipeline Shutdown

Only twelve commodity vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz over the September 19-20 weekend, down from 35 the prior weekend, according to provisional Kpler data released Monday. Visible traffic through the strait has dwindled to a trickle, though Middle Eastern producers continue exporting oil on tankers traveling with their transponders switched off. Among trackable ships, four vessels—two tankers carrying refined oil products and two empty carriers for bulk goods and gas—exited the strait on Sunday, while another two small-sized oil tankers entered the Gulf. The sharp drop in visible transits follows the September 10-11 drone attacks on Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, which forced Saudi Aramco to reroute crude exports back through the Strait of Hormuz after halting shipments via Yanbu. Saudi Arabia has ramped up short-haul shuttle transits escorted by the U.S. Navy, moving crude from Gulf terminals like Ras Tanura to larger tankers anchored in the Gulf of Oman, with loadings at Ras Tanura and nearby Juaymah reaching about 4 million barrels per day in recent days according to maritime intelligence data. Saudi Arabia has sold as many as 60 million barrels from Ras Tanura for September and October loadings outside Hormuz via ship-to-ship transfers. JPMorgan analysts noted on September 18 that total Middle East oil flows averaged 17.1 million barrels per day over the past 10 days, about 6 million bpd below the 2025 average, with satellite imagery suggesting the Saudis moved 2.8 million bpd through Hormuz over the past six days versus just 700,000 bpd in August. The ongoing conflict and restricted Hormuz access have turned the strait into a strategic chokepoint balancing act: the kingdom must now push more volume through a waterway that remains under threat, while U.S. and Iranian forces remain in stalemate and most commercial shipping has suspended normal operations. The East-West pipeline, which carried 4-5 million bpd and provided an alternate export route by