Ship runs aground in Strait of Hormuz: Report

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A ship ran aground in the Strait of Hormuz early Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.

Citing Iranian state television, the AP reported the foreign container ship was using a route not approved by Tehran.

As of Wednesday morning, 42 vessels were in the key waterway, with 11 ships transiting the strait over the last 24 hours, according to hormuz.data-tracking.net. Of the ships that passed through the waterway, nine traveled from the Gulf of Oman into the Persian Gulf, while two headed outbound toward the Arabian Sea.

Last Tuesday, the U.N. International Maritime Organization (IMO) launched an operation to evacuate more than 11,000 seafarers from the strait, a critical choke point through which approximately one-fifth of the world’s oil flows.

Under the IMO’s plan, ships can pass through the waterway via either a northern route close to the Iranian coastline or a southern route through the waters of Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

Of the two ships that traveled outbound through the strait in the last 24 hours, one went through the Iranian route, and one went through the Omani route, according to the tracking data.

With its plan, the IMO intended to boost traffic through the strait to the daily prewar levels of roughly 130 ships, U.N. News noted last week.

But following an Iranian attack on a vessel in the Gulf of Oman last week, the organization paused evacuations from the strait. Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general of the IMO, said the vessels “did not transit” under the organization’s evacuation “framework.”

Dominguez added the evacuation plan will resume only when “further clarity is obtained.”

The recent uptick in traffic through the strait, which Iranian forces essentially closed after the U.S. and Israel launched the conflict in late February, has resulted in oil prices declining.

The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil, the benchmark for North American markets, was less than $69 per barrel as of Wednesday, slightly higher than it was in January but a positive sign for consumers after the price surpassed $100 during the war.

Gas prices, in turn, have declined in the U.S. The price of a gallon of regular gas was less than $3.85 on Wednesday, after it topped $4.50 last month, according to AAA.

That is good news for the 61.4 million Americans the AAA projected will travel by car this Fourth of July week. The costs, though, remain higher than where they stood this time last year — when they were roughly $3.15.

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Arsenio Dominguez

gas prices

International Maritime Organization

Iran

Oman

Strait of Hormuz

Trump administration

U.S.-Iran conflict

UAE

WTI crude oil

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