Oil prices spike as Hormuz traffic slows to multi-week low

Oil prices spike as Hormuz traffic slows to multi-week low

Oil prices have jumped more than 4 percent on Monday following renewed strikes between the US and Iran threatening their fragile peace agreement.

"Oil's return towards pre-war levels in June reflected markets pricing in a best-case outcome for the fragile US-Iran arrangement," analyst Fabien Yip told AFP, adding that the "re-escalation exposes how fragile that assumption was". 

Meanwhile, the number of vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz has fallen to its lowest in five weeks, according to shipping data, despite Trump’s insistence that the waterway is open to commercial vessels.

Only six ships crossed the strait on Sunday, according to Kpler data, including one transporting two million barrels of Iranian oil and another with 500,000 barrels of Kuwaiti petroleum products. 

Cargo ships anchoring near the Strait of Hormuz off the eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates at Khor Fakkan on 12 July 2026 (AFPTV/AFP)