Commercial vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remained below normal levels this week as Iranian forces continued to harass ships and the risk of mines persisted, as US officials claimed oil flows out of the Gulf had recovered to pre-conflict levels.
UKMTO said activity by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including hailing, drone overflights and targeted surveillance of merchant shipping, continued despite a lack of confirmed reports of attacks in the strait itself.
The maritime security agency reported two new attacks, one each, on ships in the Gulf of Oman and the Red Sea, highlighting the widening threat to maritime trade.
Three crew members were killed in a suspected attack in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, while a container ship was hit by a missile off the Pakistan coast.
The UKMTO said multiple open-source reports attributed the Bab el-Mandeb Strait attack to Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi militias, although the group had not claimed responsibility.
Commercial traffic through the waterway remained suppressed, with independent tracking data showing single-digit numbers of tankers moving in each direction.
UKMTO also warned of the continued risk from drifting or uncharted mines in and around the traffic separation scheme.
However, despite the subdued vessel traffic, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said crude flows out of the Arabian Gulf had rebounded.
The seven-day average of oil leaving the Hormuz had risen to almost 9 million barrels per day, Secretary Wright said Tuesday in an X post.
He said a further 5 million to 7 million b/d was leaving the region through upgraded pipelines and export facilities, putting total regional oil flows at about 15 million b/d.
Over 20 million barrels left the Arabian Gulf region on Sunday alone, Wright said, above the pre-conflict average.
Meanwhile, the US Central Command said on Tuesday that its forces had redirected 55 commercial vessels attempting to run the blockade, disabled three non-compliant vessels and boarded two as part of efforts to control maritime traffic.
Traffic data compiled by Kpler showed the disruption remained pronounced over the weekend.
Confirmed crossings through Hormuz fell from 15 on Friday, Aug. 7, to 11 on Saturday and just six on Sunday, for a three-day total of 32. Routing was concentrated, with 17 vessels using Iran's unilateral scheme and 10 classified as having an undetermined route, the data analytics firm said.
Bab el-Mandeb, in contrast, remained considerably busier, with 116 crossings over the same three days. Daily traffic there was relatively stable at 43 crossings on Friday, 37 on Saturday and 36 on Sunday.
Kpler said 12 "dark" transits and elevated sanctioned activity in the Bab el-Mandeb continued to raise concerns over vessel visibility and maritime risk.
Traffic through the southern Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb remained below normal levels, consistent with the pattern after the Houthis' July 20 declaration of a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia and an earlier confirmed attack on a Saudi-linked tanker.