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A dozen \u200ccommodity vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz on the weekend, down from 35 the prior weekend, shipping data showed on Monday, as tension in the Gulf persisted with the US and Iran in stalemate.<\/strong><\/p>\n Visible traffic through the strait, the conduit \u200bfor a fifth of the world\u2019s oil and liquefied natural gas before the war, has dwindled \u200bto a trickle. However, Middle Eastern producers continue to export oil on tankers travelling \u2060with their transponders off.<\/p>\n Among trackable ships, four vessels \u2014 two tankers carrying refined oil products and two empty \u200bcarriers for bulk goods and gas \u2014 exited the strait on Sunday, while another two small-sized oil tankers entered \u200bthe Gulf, provisional data from analytics firm Kpler showed.<\/p>\n On Saturday, five vessels left the Gulf carrying agricultural products, liquefied petroleum gas and fertiliser while an empty very large gas carrier entered, the data showed.<\/p>\n Before the US-Israeli war with Iran started on \u200bFebruary 28, the strait typically handled about 125 large, commercial vessels per day, including tankers, gas carriers, \u200bbulkers and container vessels.<\/p>\n The attacks by the Houthis on Saudi Aramco\u2019s East-West pipeline have prompted the state energy \u200cfirm to increase \u2060exports through the Strait of Hormuz this month and next after halting some shipments via Yanbu.<\/p>\n That enabled exports from the OPEC kingpin to recover to over 4 million barrels per day (bpd) so far in September after slumping to 2.4 million bpd in August, the lowest since at least 2013, according to provisional data from \u200bKpler.<\/p>\n A total of 13 tankers, \u200bmostly very large crude \u2060carriers carrying 34 million barrels of crude, exited the strait in the week of September 13, Kpler data showed. Saudi Arabia accounted for half of the exports, \u200bwhile 35% of the volume came from Iraq.<\/p>\n \u201cMiddle East oil flows remain surprisingly \u200bstrong despite \u2060the disruption to Saudi Arabia\u2019s East-West pipeline,\u201d JPMorgan analysts said in a note on September 18, adding that the total oil flows averaged 17.1 million bpd in the past 10 days, just 6.1 million bpd below the \u20602025 average.<\/p>\n \u201cThe \u200bmost notable pivot has come from Saudi Arabia,\u201d the analysts said, \u200bas satellite data indicated Saudi oil moving through the Strait of Hormuz averaged 2.9 million bpd over the past six days, up \u200bfrom just 700,000 bpd in August.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nSAUDI CRUDE EXPORTS RISING<\/strong><\/h2>\n