Todays updates from the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, Gulf of Oman and Bab-el-Mandab Strait.......plus the new pipeline to beat the Strait is ahead of schedule, checkpoints and cash in the Strait of Hormuz, Saudi oil shipments hit a 20 year low and another shadow fleet boarded and redirected by the USN
The new pipeline that will run alongside an existing one to Fujairah from the Persian Gulf is already 50% completed after the project was accelerated due to the hostilities. The existing pipeline carries an average of 1.8 million barrels per day, the new one once finished, slated to be early 2027, will double that capacity.The Abu Dhabi Media Office revealed the existence of the new West-East Pipeline project last week, saying Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed directed state-owned oil giant ADNOC to fast-track its construction in order to double export capacity via the port of Fujairah by 2027.
"Today, it's already almost 50 per cent complete, and we are accelerating its delivery towards 2027," Sultan Al Jaber said during a live-streamed Atlantic Council event, among his most extensive public remarks since the war began.
"Right now, too much of the world's energy still moves through too few choke points. That is exactly why the UAE made the decision more than a decade ago to invest in infrastructure that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz."
More of this :
New UAE pipeline to beat Hormuz chokepoint now halfway to completion, ADNOC chief says (Baird Maritime - May 20, 2026)
The various ways and means that are being used by the Iranians to monitor and charge ships that wish to transit the Strait of Hormuz has been subject to close scrutiny, especially in regard to dodging the US sanctions and USN.
Outside of government agreements, the process to secure Iranian permission to transit involves a detailed vetting procedure conducted by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s elite fighting force, according to three Iranian sources and a European shipping source.
“The affiliation check is to identify if the vessel has any connection to the US or Israel,” said the European shipping source. It takes about a week for the Guards to review documentation, and during the process they may want to physically inspect the ship, the source said.
The IRGC requires ship owners to disclose details including the value of the ship’s cargo, the flag, its origin and destination, the registered owner and manager, and nationalities of the crew, according to documents reviewed by Reuters that were sent to shipping industry sources by Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority. The authority was set up in recent weeks to approve and tax vessel transits.
The vetting is carried out by Iranian state institutions including the Ports and Maritime Organisation, the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade, the national shipping organisation, and the security overseer of the Supreme National Security Council, according to the three senior Iranian officials. The IRGC, which has broad oversight over Iranian security, is also involved in evaluating the ships, the officials said.
Bilateral arrangements for passage include an additional step: Countries contact Iran’s foreign minister to request permission. The minister forwards these to the Supreme National Security Council, which includes the IRGC and representatives of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, one of the officials said.
More on this :
FEATURE | Checkpoints and cash: Iran rewrites the rules for passing through Hormuz (Baird Maritime / Reuters - May 20, 2026)
As posted last week in relation to Iraqi oil movements having dropped due to the ongoing hostilities, so too has Saudi Arabia's. This has not been helped by the attacks on their main pipeline from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea. Oil prices are still fluctuating upwards despite the US administration holding off further attacks, attacks from within Iraq over the weekend unsettled the markets significantly
Saudi Arabia's crude oil exports dropped to a record low of 4.974 million barrels per day in March, based on data since January 2002, Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI) data showed on Wednesday.
Saudi production in March was about 6.967 million bpd, the JODI data showed, also the lowest on record, down from 10.882 million bpd in February.
Monthly export figures are provided by Riyadh and other members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to JODI, a data transparency initiative coordinated by energy organisations including OPEC and the IEA.
The Iran war has sent shockwaves through global energy markets, driving oil prices sharply higher.
"At the beginning of the conflict, flows via the Strait of Hormuz were completely disrupted, impacting exports from within the Persian Gulf. The ramp up of exports from the port of Yanbu in the Red Sea and using inventories stored abroad should have helped the Kingdom to recover exports later in the month," said UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo.
.............
Brent crude futures were trading at around $108 a barrel on Wednesday, while US West Texas Intermediate futures were near $101.46.
Saudi Arabia's refinery crude throughput in March fell by 0.746 million bpd to 2.266 million bpd from February's 3.012 million bpd, the JODI data showed, while direct crude burning increased by 82,000 bpd to 330,000 bpd.
More of this :
Saudi Arabia oil shipments hit a over two-decade low in March (Baird Maritime / Reuters - May 20, 2026)
Oil products tanker, Celestial Sea, was boarded by USN on May 20, 2026 off Muscat, Oman. There were suspicions that she was heading towards Iran despite having Khor Fakkan on her AIS as destination. The ship was released after a full inspection and told to change her course.
U.S. Marines boarded the tanker from helicopters while it was in the Gulf of Oman. According to CENTCOM, the vessel was searched redicted before it was released.
The Celestial Sea is well-known as one of Iran’s shadow fleet vessels. The United States sanctioned the tanker in April 2025 while it was operating under the name Harmony. The NGO UANI (United Against Nuclear Iran) reports it blacklisted the vessel in 2023.
More of this, including video :
Video: U.S. Forces Board and Redirect Iranian Product Tanker (Maritime Executive - May 20, 2026)
Her current position :
So onto the Strait of Hormuz and Bab-el-Mandab Strait
The line of small cargo ships seems to have reformed tween Khasab and Ramchah / Larak Island. As a result the route south of Larak has gone quiet...or perhaps dark. Traffic is down again and at time of writing there have been no reports of incidents
The Bab-el-Mandab Strait is very busy this morning, free flowing and as above, no reported incidents as yet this morning
The Persian Gulf anchorages and ports are all operating well, anchorages are congested but much of the larger ship traffic has gone dark. There is a queue forming to go to Umm Qasr in Iraq, Doha anchorage is almost empty again. The large fishing fleets of the Persian Gulf (small orangey red dots and arrows are off Saudi Arabia and have been largely static, likely due to the extreme oil contamination along the Iranian shoreline and islands
The anchorages off Ras-al-Khaimah, Mina Saqr, Umm Quwain and Dubai, there has been some very heavy clustering going on, all of the ships from Das Island anchorage have been pushed / herded together by the Iranians which is not a good sign
On the Gulf of Oman, once again Dibba, Furjairah and Khor Fakkan ports and anchorages appear to have been cleared, ships from those areas now anchored, against very heavy clustering with Iranian babysitters close by, off Al Widyyat and Sohar anchorages. Again this is somewhat indicative of possible attack or other issues forthcoming. Muscat, just about viewable to the bottom right of the screenshot is, once again busy.
Still no active AIS for CMA CGM San Antonio nor further updates on her crew. It does seem that she has, infact, been lost. Hoping to get updates on her injured crew when they become available.
That's it for now....more updates tomorrow.