Hormuz vessel traffic falls 33%; Saudi Aramco says Jazan fire extinguished

Vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz fell 33% on Friday from the previous day, while Brent crude settled more than 1% higher at $83.55 a barrel. On Sunday, Saudi Arabia said firefighters had extinguished a blaze at Saudi Aramco’s Jazan refinery. The Saudi Ministry of Energy statement said no one was injured and authorities were completing procedures at the site, but it did not identify the cause or disclose any effect on refinery output.

The timing matters for interpreting the market data. Brent’s move to $83.55 and West Texas Intermediate’s roughly 1% rise to $78.18 were Friday closes, before the Sunday fire was reported. Those gains therefore cannot be presented as a direct market reaction to the Jazan incident. Both benchmarks still lost more than 7% over the week, according to CNBC’s report.

What is verified

Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry said the Jazan refinery fire was extinguished and reported no injuries.

The ministry did not state the fire’s cause, the affected unit, damage, capacity loss or a restart schedule.

Iran-backed Houthis claimed responsibility for a drone strike, but CNBC said it had not independently verified that claim.

Kpler data cited by CNBC showed Hormuz ship traffic down 33% on Friday, with most vessels using the Iranian route.

The Strait of Hormuz is the central market exposure. Roughly one-fifth of global energy supplies normally pass through the waterway, making verified changes in vessel flow more consequential for crude pricing than an unconfirmed attack claim alone. The decline in traffic came as Iran and Oman discussed transit arrangements and as reopening conditions remained unresolved.

For Saudi Aramco, the missing operating details are material. The government statement confirmed the emergency response, but not whether crude intake, refining runs or product exports were interrupted. Until the company or ministry publishes unit-level information, any estimate of lost barrels would be speculative.

What to watch next

The next checks are an operational update from Saudi Aramco or the Energy Ministry, Kpler’s following-day vessel count, and the first Brent and WTI session after the Sunday incident. A sustained traffic decline, a confirmed refinery outage or a formal change to Hormuz transit rules would provide measurable evidence of supply impact. Without those confirmations, the verified facts remain a contained fire with no reported injuries, a separate 33% decline in Friday vessel traffic, and oil prices that rose about 1% on Friday but fell more than 7% for the week.

Not investment advice. Verify all figures with primary sources before acting.