Even as Iran claims the Strait of Hormuz is open, data from a global ship-tracking firm showed that only six ships passed through the key waterway on Thursday. The data compiled by the global ship tracking firm MarineTraffic revealed that two oil, chemical or liquefied gas tankers, three cargo ships, and one bunkering vessel supplying fuel to other ships passed through the waterway on Thursday.
One of the tankers was carrying roughly 1 million barrels of oil, and another vessel was not loaded.
On Wednesday, five cargo ships had gone through the Strait. However, none of these was oil, chemical or liquefied gas tankers. All three are under U.S. sanctions for previously shipping Iranian oil. The rest were cargo ships. On Tuesday, when a ceasefire was announced, 11 ships transited the strait, including nine tankers, the data revealed.
JUST IN: Ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz over the past 24 hours. pic.twitter.com/JgG6VULYGR
— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) April 9, 2026
"It's about a third of the world's seaborne crude that is passing through there — 15 million barrels per day. And now it's basically slowed to a trickle," Matt Smith, lead oil analyst at the global trade analytics firm Kpler, which owns Marine Traffic, told CBS News Thursday.
Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, who serves as CEO of Abu Dhabi's state-owned oil company, ADNOC, claimed that the Strait of Hormuz has not yet been opened to ship traffic. "This moment demands clarity," he wrote in a post on social media. "So let's be clear: the Strait of Hormuz is not open. Access is limited, conditional and controlled.” He said about 230 oil tankers were waiting to sail from the Gulf.
US President Donald Trump also stated that Iran was doing a “very poor job” of allowing oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, warning that the situation does not match what he described as an existing agreement. "Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonourable, some would say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz. That is not the agreement we have!" he posted on Truth Social.
Russian news agency TASS, which often represents the Iranian position in the current conflict, also quoted a senior Iranian official who stated that Tehran will, in fact, limit the movement of vessels in the Strait to only 15 ships per day, under the conditions of a ceasefire. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said Iran tried to send a reassuring message to the international community and energy markets regarding freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. Khatibzadeh claimed that the critical sea route, which passes mostly through the territorial waters of Iran and Oman, remains open to all civilian traffic.
However, he clarified that the passage is being carried out under significant “technical constraints,” including the requirement for close coordination with the Iranian military to avoid naval mines that have been laid there. “We have maps, we have everything, and we need to be careful to ensure the safe passage of tankers and ships,” he explained.
But the Wall Street Journal report said Iran has turned the strait into a kind of military toll road. According to the report, ships seeking to pass are required to coordinate their movement with the Revolutionary Guards and pay tolls in advance,
