Live Tanker Traffic — Global AIS Map & Chokepoints
Live AIS positions of tankers, LNG carriers and cargo shipping worldwide, alongside the maritime chokepoints that decide how oil and gas actually move.
Major chokepoints
The single most important oil chokepoint: roughly a fifth of global petroleum liquids pass between Oman and Iran, and it is the only sea route out of the Persian Gulf. About 33 km wide at its narrowest.
Links the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, feeding the Suez Canal. Attacks on shipping since late 2023 have periodically pushed traffic onto the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope.
Egypt’s canal carries roughly a tenth of world seaborne trade. The alternative — around Africa — adds around ten days and significant cost.
The principal east–west passage between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, carrying vast volumes of crude and LNG to China, Japan and South Korea. Just 2.8 km wide at the Singapore end.
The Bosphorus and Dardanelles are the only way out of the Black Sea, carrying Russian and Kazakh crude to the Mediterranean under the Montreux Convention. Narrow, winding and weather-prone.
A key route for LPG, LNG and refined products between the US Gulf and Asia. Draft and transit limits tighten in drought years when lake levels fall.
How to read the map
The map shows live vessel positions colour-coded by ship class (tanker, cargo, passenger and more). Chokepoints are where a large share of that traffic funnels through a narrow passage — so a delay, closure or re-routing at any one of them ripples through global oil and gas prices. Zoom into a chokepoint to see the tankers queuing or transiting in real time.