Almost all large non-Iranian tankers that entered the Persian Gulf during the war appear to have made it back out with cargoes, according to Bloomberg tracking. That does not mean the Strait of Hormuz is functioning normally, but it does suggest a narrow corridor of selective trade remains open for owners and charterers still willing to price in exceptional security, insurance and political risk.
For TankerMap readers, the operational signal matters more than the headline drama. If laden tankers are still completing round trips through Hormuz, even in small numbers, that points to a market split between operators standing aside and a smaller group prepared to keep moving crude from Gulf terminals under tight constraints. TankerMap tracks 4,022 tankers and 155 ports worldwide, and this kind of selective traffic is exactly the pattern that can reshape vessel positioning, freight premiums, queueing and confidence around one of the world’s most important oil and LNG chokepoints.