🔻A different account of how many oil tankers transited the Strait of Hormuz

Barak Ravid, a reporter for Axios, has reported, citing three U.S. officials, that about 40 oil tankers crossed in both directions via the deep southern route of the Strait of Hormuz on Friday night, and that about 16 million barrels of oil also left through this route from the strait.

In contrast, Saberin News, by publishing an image of a table that it says is related to data from the Kpler ship-tracking system, has rejected this report.

In this table, for August 21, the number of oil-tanker transits through the Strait of Hormuz from west to east is recorded as zero. Based on this, Saberin News has claimed that on Friday no oil tanker transited the strait on its way out of the Persian Gulf, and that “not even one barrel of oil” was exported through this route.

The outlet has also claimed that Iran allowed only three Iraqi tankers to leave and prevented other vessels, including Chinese ships, from transiting.

However, ship-tracking system data may not provide a complete picture of movements because some vessels may have their automatic identification system turned off or because there may be delays in recording information. As a result, at present it is not possible to independently resolve the discrepancy between the statements of U.S. officials and the data published by Saberin News.