Oil and LNG Tankers Go Dark Again as Hormuz Crisis Deepens

Oil and LNG tankers are back to switching off transponders when transiting the Strait of Hormuz as the latest escalation in the region and last week’s Iranian attacks on commercial ships prompted vessel operators to brave the chokepoint unobserved. Total tanker traffic collapsed on Sunday to just six vessels managing to clear the Strait of Hormuz, all in the so-called dark mode to avoid detection, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing preliminary data by Kpler it had analyzed. The re-emergence of the dark-mode transit is in stark contrast…