By Yongchang Chin

(Bloomberg) -- Oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz have recovered to around two-thirds of pre-war levels, limiting the Iran war's impact on global crude prices, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

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Total exports of crude and oil products passing through the waterway have risen to 15 million to 16 million barrels a day, Goldman analysts including Daan Struyven and Yulia Zhestkova Grigsby said in a note. That's still 7 to 8 million barrels below pre-conflict levels, but well above a trough of 5 million to 6 million barrels a day in March, they said.

"The rise in dark crossings by specialized shippers, and in ship-to-ship transfers shows that producers and shippers are adapting to the Mideast conflict," Goldman said. Higher dark flows could "moderate the upside to crude oil prices even if Mideast disruptions last longer," it said.

How much oil is passing through Hormuz can be difficult to gauge as tankers often turn off their satellite transponders, a practice known as going dark, to avoid detection. About 6 million to 8 million barrels a day of crude is transiting the strait, traders told Bloomberg this week. The exports are helping keep global oil prices — which have dropped to around $89 a barrel from more than $120 in April — in check.

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While a lot of oil is getting out of the Persian Gulf, flows of liquefied natural gas and refined fuels are lower. "We continue to see greater price upside to European natural gas prices and deferred oil product prices in persistent disruption scenarios than for crude," Goldman said.

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