Strait of Hormuz Traffic: UKMTO Says AIS Misses Most US-Facilitated Transits

The October 9 maritime report shows a large counting gap, not a measured volume of untracked oil. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) October 9 report puts traffic through the Strait of Hormuz at roughly 75% below pre-conflict levels. In the same report, the organization says separately sourced US Naval Cooperation and Guidance for Shipping (NCAGS) facilitated transit counts are approximately five times its AIS-observed transit counts. These are not five independent confirmations of each AIS track. They are two records assembled by different methods, and UKMTO says it cannot yet independently verify all of the US figures. [1]

That distinction determines what the numbers can t…