# Only Four Vessels Transited the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, and None Carried Oil or Gas

Brent crude held above 105 dollars a barrel after Saudi Arabia shut the pipeline that bypasses the strait, and Pakistan's cabinet said domestic generation is now covering the shortfall in imports.

- Published: 2026-09-16T05:10:39.518Z
- Canonical: https://polylog.news/2026-09-16/only-four-vessels-transited-the-strait-of-hormuz-on-monday-a
- Publisher: Polylog (Global desk)
- Section: markets
- Sources: [TASS (Russian)](https://tass.ru/mezhdunarodnaya-panorama/28115709), [Dawn](https://www.dawn.com/news/2030288/ministers-sound-alarm-as-energy-crunch-looms), [CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/13/oil-price-iran-war-strait-hormuz-saudi-pipeline.html), [Globes (Hebrew)](https://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1001555589#utm_source=RSS)

Four ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz on 15 September, and none were crude oil supertankers or liquefied natural gas carriers, the Russian news agency TASS reported, [citing Reuters tracking data](https://tass.ru/mezhdunarodnaya-panorama/28115709). Under normal conditions the strait carries roughly a fifth of the world's seaborne oil. Four vessels in a day, with no energy cargoes among them, means the waterway has effectively closed to the oil and gas trade it normally carries.

The overland alternative has also narrowed. Saudi Arabia [closed the pipeline that carries crude westward across the kingdom](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/13/oil-price-iran-war-strait-hormuz-saudi-pipeline.html) and out to the Red Sea, the main physical bypass of the strait, after Houthi attacks on facilities in the south of the country. Brent crude rose toward 107.50 dollars a barrel on Tuesday before easing about 1 percent in Asian hours on Wednesday, according to [the Israeli business daily Globes](https://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1001555589#utm_source=RSS).

Importing governments are now managing the shortfall directly. In Islamabad, Pakistan's federal cabinet said [domestic energy resources had kept the electricity system running through the Hormuz disruption](https://www.dawn.com/news/2030288/ministers-sound-alarm-as-energy-crunch-looms), and it prepared a nationwide fuel relief program worth 100 rupees a liter. Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik said that figure is the most the economy can absorb, an admission that the state is rationing the subsidy rather than the fuel.

Austrian business-cycle theory usually focuses on credit conditions. This is a different kind of constraint: a genuine reduction in the supply of a physical input that no amount of monetary easing can replace. Every central bank now facing energy-driven inflation is facing a shortage of barrels, not a shortage of liquidity, and the subsidy programs appearing across importing countries convert that shortage into fiscal deficits that will have to be financed at the higher yields the bond market is already demanding.

## What this means

A closed Strait of Hormuz plus a closed Saudi bypass removes both main routes for Gulf crude at once, which feeds directly into refining margins, freight and insurance rates, and the headline inflation numbers central banks are reacting to. Energy importers running current-account deficits, notably Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and much of South Asia, bear the greatest cost through their currencies and their fuel-subsidy bills. Gulf producers that can still ship, along with United States and Atlantic Basin exporters, benefit from the higher price. The decisive question is whether tanker traffic resumes within days, which would quickly reduce the price premium, or whether the current near-zero level of energy shipments continues into October and forces importers to draw down strategic reserves.

## What to watch

- The daily count of laden tankers clearing the strait, which is the single cleanest measure of whether the disruption is easing or hardening.
- Whether Saudi Arabia reopens its cross-country pipeline, because the bypass is the only large-scale route that avoids the strait entirely.
- Fuel-subsidy announcements from importing governments, since each one moves the cost of the shock from households onto sovereign balance sheets that must borrow at current yields.