90 Ships Cross the Strait of Hormuz    03/18 06:11

   About 90 ships including oil tankers have crossed the Strait of Hormuz since 
the outset of the war with Iran and it is still exporting millions of barrels 
of oil at a time when the waterway has been effectively closed, according to 
maritime and trade data platforms.

   HONG KONG (AP) -- About 90 ships including oil tankers have crossed the 
Strait of Hormuz since the outset of the war with Iran and it is still 
exporting millions of barrels of oil at a time when the waterway has been 
effectively closed, according to maritime and trade data platforms.

   Many of the vessels that passed through the strait were so-called "dark" 
transits evading Western government sanctions and oversight that likely have 
ties to Iran, maritime data firm Lloyd's List Intelligence said. More recently, 
vessels with ties to India and Pakistan have also successfully crossed the 
strait as governments stepped up negotiations.

   As crude prices spiked above $100 a barrel, U.S. President Donald Trump 
pressured allies and trade partners to send warships and reopen the strait, 
hoping to bring oil prices lower.

   Most shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway for global 
oil and gas transport that supplies roughly one-fifth of the world's crude oil, 
has been halted since early March, after the war started. About 20 vessels have 
been attacked in the area.

   However, Iran has still managed to export well above 16 million barrels of 
oil since the beginning of March, trade data and analytics platform Kpler 
estimated. Due to Western sanctions and associated risks, China has been the 
biggest buyer of Iranian oil.

   There has been "continued resilience" in Iran's oil export volumes, 
said Kpler trade risk analyst Ana Subasic.

   Iran has managed to profit from oil sales and also "preserve its own export 
artery" by using control over the chokepoint, said Kun Cao, client director at 
consulting firm Reddal.

   Iran's oil export data estimates are largely aligned with maritime traffic 
data.

   At least 89 ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz between March 1 and 15 -- 
including 16 oil tankers, according to Lloyd's List Intelligence, down from 
roughly 100 to 135 vessel passages per day before the war. More than one-fifth 
of the 89 vessels were believed to be Iran-affiliated, while Chinese and Greece 
affiliated ships are among the rest, it said.

   Other vessels also have been getting through.

   The Pakistan-flagged crude oil tanker Karachi, controlled by the Pakistan 
National Shipping Corp., passed through the strait on Sunday, Lloyd's List 
Intelligence said.

   Shariq Amin, a spokesman at the Pakistan Port Trust, refused to confirm or 
deny which route the MT Karachi had used but he said the ship would soon safely 
reach Pakistan.

   The India-flagged liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers Shivalik and Nanda 
Devi, both owned by state-owned Shipping Corp. of India, also traveled through 
the strait around March 13 or 14, according to Lloyd's List Intelligence. LPG 
is used as a primary cooking fuel by millions of Indian households.

   India's foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, told the Financial Times 
the two vessels' were able to pass following talks with Iran. Iraq was also in 
talks with Iran to allow Iraqi oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, its 
state-run news agency reported.

   Vessels may be transiting "with at least some level of diplomatic 
intervention," said Richard Meade, editor-in-chief of Lloyd's List. So, Iran 
may have "effectively created a safe corridor" with some ships passing close to 
the Iranian coast.

   Some vessels near or in the strait were found to have declared themselves as 
China-linked or with all Chinese crew to reduce risks of being attacked, based 
on an earlier analysis on ship tracking platform MarineTraffic. Analysts 
believe they were taking advantage of China's closer ties with Iran.

   Oil prices have jumped more than 40% to above $100 per barrel since the Iran 
war began, and Iran has threatened it won't allow "even a single liter of oil" 
destined for the U.S., and Israel and their allies to pass through.

   To try to stabilize oil prices, the U.S. said it was allowing Iranian oil 
tankers to cross the strait. "The Iranian ships have been getting out already, 
and we've let that happen to supply the rest of the world," Treasury Secretary 
Scott Bessent said in an interview with CNBC on Monday.

   The U.S. bombed military sites on Kharg Island off the Iranian coast, which 
is key for Iran's oil network and exports, but President Donald Trump said he 
had left its oil infrastructure alone for now.

   The latest passages through the Strait of Hormuz show the strait was not 
simply "closed," Cao said. "It is better understood as closed selectively 
against some traffic, while still functioning for Iranian exports and a narrow 
set of tolerated non-Iranian movements," he said.

   However, if Iran's plan is to "inflict pain through higher energy prices, 
the number of tankers it allows through the Strait of Hormuz may be very 
limited," Dutch bank ING's strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote 
in a research note.