TREE NEWS reports: Crude and condensate flows out of the Persian Gulf reached 24.6 million barrels per day in the week to Oct. 18, showing Middle East oil shipments barely buckling despite increasingly frequent and destructive attacks by Iran on commercial vessels. Volumes are volatile, and the month-to-date average remains below pre-war levels, with loadings often bunched into convoys that transit the Strait of Hormuz and transfer cargo to tankers waiting outside.
Middle East Oil Shipments Near Pre-War Levels Despite Hormuz Attacks
The key signal here is resilience, not disruption: escalating attacks on commercial shipping have not translated into a sustained collapse in Gulf export volumes. The convoy-and-transfer workaround is doing real work, but it adds operational friction and concentrates risk into fewer, larger transit windows, which is where a genuine interruption could originate. The open question is whether that workaround continues to absorb escalation, or whether the volatility and below-pre-war monthly average are early signs of a slower, cumulative erosion in flows.
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