Hormuz Traffic Data Conflicts With Trump's Claim of 30 Ships Crossing Daily

The Strait of Hormuz has become a source of sharply conflicting claims about the amount of maritime traffic and oil moving through the strategic waterway.

A vessel transits the Strait of Hormuz amid conflicting claims over the amount of shipping and oil moving through the strategic waterway. [Photo: U.S. Central Command Facebook]

Ship-tracking service Kpler reported that traffic declined sharply, with only five commodity vessels crossing the strait, according to Ben Werschkul of Yahoo Finance.

The same day, the United States and Iran exchanged fire after a month-long lull in hostilities.

The Trump administration has presented a significantly different picture.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that more than 17 million barrels of oil passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, describing it as the highest volume since the conflict began.

Reuters confirmed Wright's statement.

President Donald Trump has also claimed that US naval assistance has enabled an average of 30 ships a night to pass through the strait.

Independent shipping data, however, shows substantially fewer visible vessels. Kpler reported only four commodity vessels crossing on Thursday, Sept. 3, and said the 10-day average was 15.

The data does not include vessels operating with their Automatic Identification System transponders switched off.

Before the conflict, about 125 commercial vessels passed through the strait each day.

That limitation is important. Ships with their tracking systems disabled may not appear in commercial tracking data, meaning visible vessel counts cannot by themselves establish the total number of ships crossing the waterway.

The oil-volume figures and vessel-count figures therefore do not necessarily measure the same thing.

A relatively small number of tankers can transport large quantities of oil, while some vessels may also be invisible to commercial tracking systems.

The discrepancy nevertheless highlights the uncertainty surrounding traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

The International Monetary Fund previously reported that tanker crossings had fallen dramatically after the outbreak of the conflict, although it was reporting conditions earlier in the war.

Trump has separately suggested renaming the Strait of Hormuz the "Trump Strait," claiming that the

The conflicting claims have fueled uncertainty over how much oil is actually moving through the waterway and the extent to which US naval operations have restored commercial traffic.