
HFI Research
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Contrarian Investment Research: Energy (Oil & Gas)
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Strait of Hormuz over the last 24 hours: Iran learns the Twitter game The US has dominated the Iran war so far in one category: the jawbone. Iranian diplomats like Araghchi and Ghalibaf are either too stupid, too naive, or complicit to realize that the US is absolutely kicking Iran's ass in the media game. We've had countless ceasefire announcements, the Strait of Hormuz is opening soon, and a peace deal is coming headlines over the last 5 months. Oil traders have already experienced VAR (value-at-risk) shocks, so taking outright long positions isn't possible for many large trading firms. But it seems the Iranians are learning the Twitter game with hardliners now taking firmer control over both the public communication channels and the diplomacy routes. Soon after another bogus headline from Pakistan about how the US and Iran are going to reach some permanent peace deal soon, the newly appointed Mohsen Rezaee denied all of it with his posts about the conditions the US needs to meet. I suspect oil market participants are taking notice as well as oil prices completely disregarded the Pakistani headline, Chris Wright's bogus claim about ~9 million b/d moving through the Strait, and Trump's comments. Either way, we will see soon enough what the next escalation roadmap looks like. It won't be long. Video from MarineTraffic.
HFI Research248,527 görüntüleme • 20 gün önce

My analysis of the Strait of Hormuz over the last 24 hours. If the tankers use the Iran route, they are dominantly Iran-related. If the tankers use the Oman route, they are not, and never sanctioned. I have heard from ship owners that most tankers cannot use the Iran route because the EU has not lifted sanctions on IRGC. Using the Iran route would risk sanctions, making the Oman route the only viable option. With more conflict going on between IRGC and the US, the visible AIS data on Oman's tanker route is going to go dark again, which means Iran will have to keep escalating in order to completely halt flows. For the US, the fact that the Oman route might be blocked presents it with a big ultimatum: either the US escalates or gives IRGC control of the Strait of Hormuz. Logic says there's no way that would happen, so escalation will continue. Given that Trump has made it obvious that he does not want to escalate, I fear that the IRGC would just keep escalating until they gain control. This issue is far from over. I have included the video from MarineTraffic and my table for inbound tankers.
HFI Research404,279 görüntüleme • 2 ay önce

Strait of Hormuz over the last 48 hours: Back to the start. As the war rages on, Fujairah as the main tanker shuttle port is all but dead after the IRGC fired missiles at two VLCCs, the first escalation of its type yesterday. Even with US protection, it was not enough, and this is going to take ~6 million b/d of flow out of the market. To further add to my point that the escalation is increasing, this segment from the WSJ article is very concerning: "There was also concern among shippers that the scope of Iran’s attacks was widening away from the immediate vicinity of the strait after a vessel was targeted off Oman early Tuesday, according to its owner, London-based Stolt-Nielsen. It had not crossed the strait at all and was loaded with Omani chemicals headed to Malaysia, according to Kpler." We are in no-man's land now. Either Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz or it doesn't. It's all-or-nothing. I have included the video from MarineTraffic.
HFI Research215,629 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce

Here's my analysis of the Strait of Hormuz situation for the last 24 hours. As I noted yesterday, I was seeing a lot of vessels using the Oman route to exit. This was following the announcement by Oman and IMO. The IRGC retailiated today on a vessel, but even after the attack, I am still seeing transits. It's a lot less, but there are vessels willing to take the risk. On the inbound front, the flow is still heavily restricted. Whatever outflow we are seeing today is unsustainable as there are not enough non-Iranian tankers going in. In particular, we need empty VLCCs going in to load up crude. This is just a trickle so far. In my view, the traffic in the Oman lane will lead to more escalation by IRGC. Without throttling flows entirely in the Southern lane, IRGC will lose control of its leverage over the Strait. If they act, then it's a question of what the US does after. I think this is only the beginning. I have included the time lapse video with names using MarineTraffic data and the list of inbound tankers.
HFI Research166,275 görüntüleme • 2 ay önce

This is my analysis of the Strait of Hormuz and you can see it in the video from MarineTraffic. Tanker inflows remain heavily restricted. I have included a table of June 24 data thus far. What's obvious to me is that there's an exodus of tankers using the Oman route. You can see this at the beginning of the video and towards the end of the video. There's another group ready to leave. The US appears to be coordinating with these groups to support transit. Again, most of the traffic is outbound as they are trying to get stranded tankers out. IRGC just announced that tankers must adhere to the rules. But so far, there's not much enforcement on the Oman lane. The longer the transits continue on the Oman lane, the faster IRGC will lose control of the Strait. This means that escalation is a high probability scenario.
HFI Research165,073 görüntüleme • 2 ay önce

Strait of Hormuz over the last 24 hours. Just a quick cheat guide: any tanker ending with "prosperity" or "b" will be used for ship-to-ship transfers via the Oman lane under US escorts. VLCC inbound tanker flow, excluding Iran, is around 4 a day right now, or 8 million b/d. Most of the inbound tankers using the Iran route are limited to Iranian flows and products. I have included the video from MarineTraffic and the last two days for reference.
HFI Research101,531 görüntüleme • 2 ay önce

Strait of Hormuz over the last 24 hours. I am seeing fewer vessels transiting in general (possible with AIS off). But there's an interesting point in the video from MarineTraffic where it is clear that the US escorted two groups of tankers through the Oman lane. This time, they brought in 3 VLCCs. In terms of inbound tankers, this group represented half of the total inbound and was entirely on the crude side. Given that the Iranians have said that no technical talks will take place this week, I suspect this is another move to escalate the issue of the Oman lane. I've included both June 28 and June 29 tables as the cutoff date might confuse some people as to why Felicity or Norita were not included on the June 29 list.
HFI Research100,442 görüntüleme • 2 ay önce

Strait of Hormuz over the last 24 hours: same old shit. In the past 7 days, Kpler estimated ~2 million b/d exited the Strait of Hormuz. A total of 15 tankers exited with 4 of them being related to Iran. Based on the video from MarineTraffic, you can see some tankers still going through like Nissos Kea, Rotterdam Energy, and Mraweh. The traffic is extremely limited in the South, so IRGC hasn't mined it yet, but I think it is inevitable. To gain full control, they will have to get total compliance, which the US will oppose.
HFI Research56,248 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce

Strait of Hormuz over the last 72 hours: escalation continues. Visible vessel traffic fell off a cliff. Only the Iran lane has vessels with AIS on, nothing in the Oman lane. We know there were still transits because UKMTO reported vessels being attacked and IRGC said 4 vessels were attacked yesterday. One tanker, Kavomaleas, was hit and caught on fire. You can see that in the video time-lapse. The Oman lane will remain heavily contested. Bloomberg reported that tanker owners are offering 6 months' worth of pay if the crews make the voyage in and out of the Strait of Hormuz. How much is your life worth? I guess we will see how long this continues, but what's obvious is that this conflict remains all-or-nothing. Video from MarineTraffic
HFI Research55,975 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce

Strait of Hormuz over the last 24 hours: war is back on? MOU on, MOU off. Strait on, Strait off. War on, war off. The back and forth is getting stupid at some point, but what's not stupid is the stakes involved here. Some have incorrectly pointed out that all the US had to do was adhere to the MOU. No, that's wrong. If the US gave Iran control of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran would be the most powerful oil producer in the world. And during the MOU period, IRGC stopped issuing permits because Israel wouldn't leave Lebanon. The Strait of Hormuz is the leverage; that's why the MOU was dead on arrival. Looking at the video from MarineTraffic, you can see that there are some tankers that trickle in, but they do not move the production shut-in math. UAE appears to be the only one that's getting some benefit from this, but even its export volumes in July are down ~600k b/d m-o-m. Iraq is moving volumes, but it is likely a mixture of Iranian crude + Iraqi crude. This game has been played for years before as to evade both the blockade and sanctions. Nonetheless, with the strikes ongoing again, the markets should come to the realization soon enough that the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz will not be solved with diplomacy. There's no way out but through.
HFI Research45,066 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce

Strait of Hormuz over the last 24 hours. US escorts continue in the Oman lane, but the pace of the inbound tankers (crude) has not increased. It is interesting to see more tankers using the Iranian route, but most are carrying products. Because of the rush of outflows, Iran does not have enough VLCCs to take crude away. I suspect they are using some of the tankers going to Iraq to transport some of the crude there. This is why if you see some of the tankers going to Iraq to load crude, I would be skeptical to assume that they are there just for Iraq. According to data from Φίλιππος , the pace of the outflow has slowed meaningfully since the escalation the week prior. We still have a gap of ~4 to ~5 million b/d even accounting for bypass. More and more of the outbound crude is headed for China, so they are coming back. It will only be obvious to the market after the fact. I have included the video from MarineTraffic and I have included the table for inbound tankers for July 2 and 3.
HFI Research53,753 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce

Strait of Hormuz over the last 72 hours. Nothing of importance. Source: MarineTraffic
HFI Research67,531 görüntüleme • 4 ay önce

Here's an update with the latest traffic flow in the Strait of Hormuz. RAFFLES PROSPERITY (IMO: 9390264) - Not Sanctioned, Oil Products Tanker EAN SPIR (IMO: 9298818) - Not Sanctioned, Oil Products Tanker FPMC C LORD (IMO: 9447574) - Not Sanctioned, VLCC SEAWAY (IMO: 9273650) - Not Sanctioned, Oil/Chemical Tanker AKTI A (IMO: 9935569) - Not Sanctioned, Oil/Chemical Tanker CRAVE (IMO: 9045807) - Sanctioned, LPG/Chemical Tanker GARDIAN (IMO: 9114581) - Sanctioned, LPG Tanker TORIN (IMO: 9281566) - Sanctioned, Oil/Chemical Tanker RAINE (IMO: 9223540) - Sanctioned, LPG Tanker NV AQUAMARINE (IMO: 9307736) - Sanctioned, LPG Tanker 5 sanctioned, 5 unsanctioned
HFI Research66,981 görüntüleme • 4 ay önce

Audio recording from the IRGC’s message to tankers on the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
HFI Research56,387 görüntüleme • 4 ay önce

Strait of Hormuz over the last 24 hours. Source: MarineTraffic
HFI Research43,092 görüntüleme • 5 ay önce
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