Saudi Arabia has ramped up oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz since U.S.-Iran deal

Saudi Arabia has ramped up oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz since the U.S. and Iran signed an agreement to reopen the sea lane last month.

The Saudis have shipped about 34 million barrels of oil through Hormuz since June 17, according to data from the trade intelligence firm Kpler. Riyadh's exports over the past two weeks are more than double the 15 million barrels the kingdom shipped through the strait from March 9 through June 17.

"Saudi crude flows inside the Gulf are reviving after months of conflict-driven rerouting," Kpler analyst Jashan Prema told clients in a Thursday note.

About 24 million barrels of Saudi oil shipped since June 17 was loaded during or before the U.S.-Iran war, according to Kpler. This indicates the Saudis are clearing a backlog of oil tankers that were unable to exit the Gulf during the conflict, the firm said. About 17 million barrels of Saudi oil loaded before the war remains in the Gulf, it said.

Riyadh largely paused shipments from its Gulf export terminals of Ras Tanura and Juaymah on March 9 after tanker traffic through Hormuz plunged due to Iranian attacks. The kingdom redirected a substantial portion of its oil exports through an East-West pipeline to the Red Sea terminal of Yanbu.

The Saudis are now restarting their export logistics in the Gulf and not just clearing the pre-war oil backlog, Prema said. Eleven supertankers bound for the kingdom entered the Gulf between June 23 and July 1, the analyst said. Eight of those tankers have loaded up on oil at Saudi terminals and five of them have already exited Hormuz, he said.

Ships continue to transit Hormuz after an outburst of hostilities between the U.S. and Iran last week. Tehran attacked two commercial ships and the U.S. responded with strikes on Iran over the weekend. Tanker traffic fell to eight ships on Sunday and then rose to 16 on Wednesday, according to Kpler data.

About 8.5 million barrels of crude passed through Hormuz on Wednesday, according to the maritime intelligence firm Windward. Nearly 15 million barrels per day passed through the strait in 2025, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.