Today's updates on the Strait of Hormuz, Bab-el-Mandab Strait, Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman ports and anchorages........plus a troubling question for shipowners and checks & balances in the oil and gas markets
With the return to normal transit levels of the Strait of Hormuz taking so long, shipowners are now having to consider placing ships that are stuck in the Persian Gulf into lay-up and repatriating crews and leaving smaller, crews aboard the ships to keep the systems running. With the chances of a safe transit diminishing and the potential of hostilities increasing, the shipowners are in a difficult situation and their crews are in an even worse situation by virtue of being stuck in a warzone and running out of basic commodities and their ships being fouled up.
How long will these 20,000 innocent seafarers who did not sign up to be on ships in conflict zone have to endure being stranded thousands of miles from home from their families who wait helplessly?
At the same time the very ships they are sitting on remain possible targets even if they are not trying to exit the Strait, especially if the uneasy ceasefire between the US and Iran fails and bombing starts again in earnest.
This leaves essentially two options - take the risk of exiting the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz or evacuate seafarers on ships currently stranded and put those vessels into a more permanent form of lay-up.
On the first option the publication this week of Industry Guidance on the Safe Management of Vessel Transit through the Strait of Hormuz produced and supported by the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), IMCA, Intercargo, Bimco, Intertanko, and OCIMF, hardly made for comforting reading for those planning a transit. And as attempts at transits have shown while some may end safely, others have ended in missile strikes with severely injured crew or vessels being seized by Iran.
In the second option by moving to warm or cold lay-up the majority or all of the crew onboard vessels stranded in the Gulf could be brought ashore and repatriated.
More on this :
Time for owners to evacuate crew stranded by Hormuz stalemate (Seatrade Maritime - May 22, 2026)
Something that needs to be explained about the fouling of the hull and other below waterline areas of a ship. If a ship that has been stuck in the Gulf for months, not moved apart from an occasional swing on the anchors, the build up will be significant. The problem is that every area of the world has its own species of friendly and not friendly / invasive fouling. For example if the Strait opened for normal business tomorrow the ships would not only move much slower and use more fuel due to the fouling but if they were destined to go somewhere that has protected waters...such as the Maldives or the GBR area of Australia, they would need to be drydocked and have all of the fouling removed before they could sail.....essentially they cannot enter another area with what is seen as contamination of their hulls, seachests, rudders and propellers. So leaving a ship static whether laid up or simply unable to move away is not an easy task to deal with once that opportunity to leave arises, you have serious ecological and environmental issues to consider too.
The oil and gas markets have understandably been twitchy during the hostilities and now when you have the potential for an agreement or more hostilities looming. Countries around the world have made various arrangements to try and be mindful of oil and gas use, and the industry heads have tried to keep things controlled as best that they can...
Whether the conflict is settled within the next few days or not, the shipping community needs to be ready. The loss of 14 million barrels per day of oil, which used to come through the Strait of Hormuz, has been calculated by Reuters and Kpler to be worth more than US$50 billion since the beginning of the war, sufficient to keep global shipping fueled for 4 months, and a hole that is going to take some filling. Should the war end this week, there will be a rush to restock to avoid imminent shortages, with oil afloat in the Gulf the first to get on the move. Conversely, a resumption of warfare will generate further safety concerns for ships in the danger area, but also put increased focus on oil stocks held afloat, particularly in Southeast Asia.
..............U.S. production of both oil and gas has soared to maximum available capacity, placing a strain on the infrastructure, particularly so when maintenance is delayed to exploit the high prices, which are likely to fall back when the crisis abates. Higher prices in the West have curtailed demand to an extent, with alternative energy sources being used where these are available. Sanctions against imports from Russia have been relaxed in some narrowly-defined shortage areas as a contingency. The same is very much true of China, where reserves estimated at 1.1 billion barrels remain healthy, and consumption has been reduced in the light of higher prices. Politically, China is not so badly affected by shortages that it felt any need to help President Trump out with the issue on his recent visit to Beijing. For the moment, President Xi Jinping is comfortable enough to sit on the sidelines and let the United States sort the mess out on its own.
The most significant pinch-points are firstly in Japan and Korea, where even though strategic reserves are substantial, there is a high dependency on imports – up to 85 percent in the case of Japan, in part a failure to replace indigenous energy generation following the closure of nuclear plants in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in 2011.
More on this :
Stock Check on Global Oil & Gas on Cusp of War Decision (Maritime Executive - May 23, 2026)
Onto the Strait of Hormuz.....there has been an increase in traffic, albeit very slight in the last 24 hours. Mostly Chinese ships with stated Chinese crews on their AIS using the Strait in both directions.
The Bab-el-Mandab Strait is running well and at time of writing no further incidents reported
Very little movement from or to ports within the Persian Gulf from Umm Qasr in Iraq down to Doha, Qatar. The vast number of pleasure craft in Bahrain seems to have switched off their AIS and perhaps given up leaving the region for now, especially as temperatures start to soar, probably easier to wait things out in the hotels and villas....something that, of course, is not available to the seafarers.
On the Mina Qasr to Dubai ports and anchorages, the Iranian herders are back and keeping the majority of the ships in a very tight huddle offshore...one of the herders shown below
On the Gulf of Oman side, all ports are still running to capacity, the anchorages of Dibba, Khor Fakkan, Fujairah, Liwa and Al Widyyat are extremely congested once again but with very few herders present
No news regarding the CMA CGM San Antonio crew, the ship has not been on AIS for almost 3 weeks now. No further repatriation of her injured crew as yet.
That's it for today....back tomorrow.