Strait of Hormuz Live Tracker:
Ship Traffic and Risk Data

How to read the Strait of Hormuz monitor

This monitor tracks two things for the Strait of Hormuz: how many vessels are moving through it and how much risk the route currently carries. Read them together to gauge how much pressure the strait is under right now.

• Risk index (0 to 100): A higher score means higher disruption risk from conflict, vessel attacks, or blockade activity in the strait. A rising score is an early signal to review Gulf routing and contingency plans.
• Daily transits: The number of vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz per day. A sharp drop signals that ships are avoiding the route or that passage is being restricted.
• Change vs normal: How current traffic compares to the strait's baseline. A large negative number means vessels are staying away and Gulf oil is struggling to reach the open ocean.
• Situation summary: A daily briefing on what is driving the strait's status. It covers both geopolitical developments, such as conflict, diplomacy, and security events, and non-geopolitical ones, such as adverse weather, low water levels, congestion, collisions, groundings, and infrastructure failures, so you get the "why" behind the numbers.

For the Strait of Hormuz, watch the risk score and the transit count together. A high risk score alongside a steep drop in transits is the clearest sign the strait is effectively closing to commercial traffic.

How is the Strait of Hormuz risk index calculated?

The risk index is a single 0 to 100 score built from four separately calculated factors. Each factor is scored on its own scale and then added together, so the number is transparent and traceable rather than a black box. Two factors are specific to the Strait of Hormuz. Two are global market signals shared across every chokepoint. The factors are calculated separately, but they are not necessarily independent, since a single geopolitical event can move vessel traffic, oil prices, and financial stress at the same time.

Because vessel traffic and geopolitics are scored specifically for Hormuz, the strait can share the same oil-price and financial-stress inputs as other routes yet still carry a very different total score. Here is how each factor works.

Vessel traffic (up to 40 points)

This factor measures how much Hormuz traffic has contracted versus normal. We take the median of the last seven completed days of transits and divide it by the strait's normal baseline of 116 vessels per day to get a transit rate, then map that rate to a score. Traffic at or above normal scores 0. A complete halt scores the full 40.

Rates between these points are interpolated. If Hormuz were running at 65% of normal (about 75 vessels a day), the factor would score about 8. Traffic comes from SeaVantage vessel-tracking data, using outbound transits over the last seven completed days. If fewer than three of those days have valid data, this factor returns no score rather than a guess.

Geopolitical risk (up to 30 points)

This factor captures conflict, vessel attacks, blockade threats, and political tension specific to the Strait of Hormuz. It is produced daily as a 0 to 30 score alongside the situation summary you see for the strait. The geopolitical score reflects only geopolitical factors, even though the situation summary beside it may also mention operational or environmental disruptions. If an assessment cannot be produced, the factor returns no score rather than a neutral placeholder.

Brent crude price (up to 20 points)

This factor reads the oil market two ways and takes the higher of the two, so it catches both a sustained high price and a sudden weekly spike without double counting the same move. This matters for Hormuz, where a threat to passage often moves oil prices within hours.

• Price level: Brent at or below \$80 scores 0. The score rises with price to a full 20 at \$120 or above (for example, \$90 = 5, \$100 = 10, \$110 = 15).
• Weekly move: A week-over-week rise of 1% or more scores the size of that percentage move, capped at 20. Price declines and rises under 1% score 0.

The final Brent score is the larger of those two. It uses the U.S. EIA Brent crude spot price only. If the latest EIA price is more than 10 days old, this factor returns no score.

Financial stress (up to 10 points)

This factor uses the OFR Financial Stress Index from the U.S. Office of Financial Research, a daily measure of stress across global financial markets. The latest valid index value is mapped to a score from 0 to 10, with higher market stress producing a higher score. If no recent value is available, the factor returns no score.

We never pad the number. If any factor's data is missing or stale, that factor is left out rather than filled with a neutral value, so the Hormuz score you see always reflects real, current inputs.

Where the Strait of Hormuz data comes from

Every number on the monitor traces back to a named source. The Transit Trend chart, for example, plots SeaVantage vessel counts for Hormuz against EIA oil prices so you can see traffic and price move together.

Ship positions on the map update in real time, every 15 minutes. The risk index and its daily inputs refresh once per day at around 00:00 UTC.

What is the Strait of Hormuz?

The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway between Iran to the north and Oman's Musandam Peninsula to the south. It is the only sea route connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the open ocean, which makes it the sole maritime exit for oil exported by Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE, and Iran.

At its narrowest point the strait is about 21 miles (33 km) wide. Traffic runs through two shipping lanes, each about two miles wide, separated by a two-mile buffer. That tight geometry leaves tankers very little room to maneuver, which is why any threat in the strait can slow or stop traffic quickly.

Why the Strait of Hormuz matters for global trade

The Strait of Hormuz is the single most important oil transit chokepoint in the world. In normal conditions, roughly 20 million barrels of crude and petroleum products move through it every day, about a fifth of global oil consumption and around a quarter of all oil traded by sea. Close to a fifth of global liquefied natural gas, most of it from Qatar, follows the same route.

Alternatives are limited. Only Saudi Arabia and the UAE operate pipelines that can bypass the strait, and those cover a fraction of normal volumes. LNG has no bypass route at all. When passage through Hormuz is restricted, the missing barrels and cargoes have nowhere else to go, and the effects show up fast:

• Crude oil benchmarks and fuel prices move within hours of a disruption
• War-risk insurance premiums climb for any vessel routed through the Gulf
• Tankers reroute or hold offshore, adding days and cost to Asia-bound cargoes
• Qatari and UAE LNG exporters face force majeure risk with no alternative sea route

What happens when the Strait of Hormuz is disrupted?

Because there is no practical detour for most Gulf oil, a disruption in the Strait of Hormuz sends effects outward in three directions at once.

Who depends on the Strait of Hormuz?

The strait is the primary export route for oil produced by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq, Bahrain, and Iran. On the demand side, the bulk of the oil leaving Hormuz heads to Asia, with China, India, Japan, and South Korea the largest importers. That concentration is why a single narrow waterway commands the attention of governments, navies, and oil traders worldwide.

Strait of Hormuz: frequently asked questions