Oil prices, after falling sharply this week, rose.
On Friday, at least five tankers moved through the strait, and on Thursday, 25 ships transited, including 14 tankers, higher than the average of recent weeks, according to Kpler, a maritime data company. Most of the tankers took a route that hugs the Iranian coastline, the path used by sanctioned ships throughout the conflict. Traffic was still far below typical levels before the war, when about 130 vessels per day moved through the strait.
For shipping companies, and the 11,000 seafarers still stuck on vessels, a meaningful resumption of traffic in the Persian Gulf remained contingent on the resolution of a number of critical concerns. About 500 commercial vessels remained stranded in the gulf.
For most companies, certainty that vessels could pass was paramount.
One shipping executive, who asked not to be named out of concern for the safety of the stranded ship his company manages, said he deemed the conditions too uncertain for the ship to leave the Persian Gulf.
With the central part of the strait littered with naval mines, some executives said they were waiting for clarity about the route ships should take, the rules for getting in line and a process for exiting to avoid navigational risks, including collision, particularly amid interference with GPS and other satellite-navigation systems. There are two viable ways in and out of the Persian Gulf: the northern route, traversing Iranian waters, and the southern one, through Omani waters, which has been supervised by the U.S. Navy, but where ships risk running aground on the rocks.
The Persian Gulf Strait Authority, Iran’s newly formed regulatory agency that it created to run operations in the strait, caused more confusion on Friday with a notice to ship operators saying that all vessels needed a permit and an approved insurer to transit the strait. Passage would be permitted only through the Iranian route near Larak Island, the notice said. Any deviation from this route would be viewed as a violation, it said.
