Lombok Strait
The deep-draught alternative to the Strait of Malacca, its traffic separation scheme in force from 2020, and the particularly sensitive sea area designated in 2024.
The Lombok Strait separates Bali from Lombok in the Indonesian archipelago and is the principal deep-draught alternative to the Strait of Malacca . IMO resolution MEPC.396(82) records its depth as 250 m against Malacca’s 200 m, which is why a laden ULCC that cannot meet the 3.5 m under keel clearance requirement in Malacca routes here instead, northbound into the Makassar Strait and on to northeast Asia.
The strait lies in Indonesian archipelagic waters, so a ship transiting it exercises archipelagic sea lanes passage under UNCLOS article 53 rather than transit passage. It forms part of lane ALKI II in the partial system of archipelagic sea lanes adopted by IMO resolution MSC.72(69) on 19 May 1998. A traffic separation scheme was adopted by the Maritime Safety Committee on 10 June 2019 and entered into force on 1 July 2020, among the first ever adopted for the archipelagic waters of an archipelagic state, and VTS Benoa operates it.
Resolution MEPC.396(82) of 4 October 2024 designated the Nusa Penida Islands and Gili Matra Islands a particularly sensitive sea area , with the routeing systems as the associated protective measures. The full article will cover the bathymetry and the Indonesian Throughflow currents, the scheme geometry, the traffic profile, and what a diversion here costs against a Malacca transit.