Iran War Updates: Battle for control of Red Sea, attacks on energy infrastructure temper news on rising oil flow

Middle East oil exports, excluding those from Iran, surpassed pre-war levels last week, despite attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, according to data from maritime tracking firm Kpler.

For the first time since the United States and Israel launched their offensive against Iran in late February, the weekly shipment average increased for several days above the pre-conflict average of 18 million barrels per day.

Crude oil exports reached pre-war levels in September, with at least 16.5 million barrels leaving the region outside Iran, Kpler said.

“Forty percent now bypasses Hormuz, and most of the crude oil crossing the strait goes to tankers offshore,” Kpler said, adding that most of the oil passes through Saudi and United Arab pipelines.

These figures include flows through the Red Sea, a route increasingly used to circumvent the blockade that Iran is trying to impose on the strait, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil reserves passed before the conflict.

Iran still claims control of the strait, and ships without its permission risk attack, but more and more people are making it out, and alternative routes meant to bypass the waterway are operating at full capacity.

Despite this rebound, experts point out that the situation is far from normal and that Iran is still deprived of a large part of its own exports due to the American counter-blockade of Iranian ports.