Oil producers in the Middle East are using nighttime voyages with AIS transponders switched off, sometimes escorted by the US military, to move crude through the Strait of Hormuz while reducing exposure to Iranian drone attacks. The Greek-owned supertanker Kiku followed that route after loading at Qatar’s Mesaieed terminal, disappearing from tracking systems near Dubai on July 31 and reappearing east of the strait on August 1. The US Department of Energy estimates that 8 million to 9 million barrels per day are still passing through Hormuz, roughly twice the volume suggested by transponder-based data from Wall Street analysts and Kpler. Tankers then transfer crude in the Gulf of Oman to vessels bound for customers including China, Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand. The strategy has temporarily eased pressure on the oil market, alongside Saudi Arabia’s use of the East-West pipeline, increased production from Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela and the United States, and releases from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve. But inventories have fallen by as much as 1.9 billion barrels during the war, while refining disruptions and strong demand for gas, diesel and jet fuel have pushed prices higher. With a negotiated end to the war and a lasting plan for the strait still elusive, the dark-transit system is a temporary workaround rather than a permanent solution.