Today, ships were largely steering clear of the Strait of Hormuz following an escalation over the weekend, in which Iran reportedly fired warning shots at vessels and the U.S. military seized an Iranian cargo ship.

Just one ship exited the Gulf through the strait while two entered in the space of 12 hours, ship-tracking data showed today, a fraction of what is usually about 130 vessels per day, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

The oil products tanker Nero, which is under British sanctions for Russia-related activities, was sailing through the strait, satellite analysis from SynMax and tracking data from the Kpler platform showed.

Two other ships - the chemical tanker Starway and Axon I, a liquefied petroleum gas tanker under US sanctions for past trading with Iran - were sailing into the Gulf.

More than a ‌dozen tankers passed through the strait after Iran briefly ⁠declared it open on Friday. But a ceasefire between the United States and Iran appeared in jeopardy today as Iran vowed to retaliate for the US seizure of its vessel and refused to join new peace talks.

Oil charterers had been preparing tankers to leave the Gulf after the announcement on Friday.

That announcement triggered a sharp fall in oil prices and war risk insurance rates started to fall.

Those rates have since risen again, to levels around 3% of the value of the ‌ship from 2%, shipping and insurance sources said.

"Recent weeks have brought several false starts and, although some form of resolution is likely at some point, the timing of any durable breakthrough remains highly uncertain," ship broker Clarksons said ⁠in a note today.

Iran fired shots at ships in the strait on Saturday, including a container ship belonging to CMA CGM, the ‌French firm confirmed, describing them as "warning shots" and adding that the crew were safe.

With a ⁠view to cooling soaring ‌oil prices, on Friday the Trump administration renewed a waiver on sanctions on Russian oil at sea, allowing buying to resume for about a month.

Oil prices were up about 5% today on fears that the ceasefire between the United States and Iran could collapse and as traffic through the strait remained largely halted.

Two days earlier, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had said Washington would not ⁠be renewing the waiver.

A similar one-month sanctions waiver allowing Iran to export crude oil and products lapsed yesterday.

News.Az 

By Ulviyya Salmanli