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Map showing the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route linking the Persian Gulf to global markets. – AP Photo <\/p>\nShips attemping passage through the Strait of Hormuz are increasingly having to coordinate with Iranian authorities, as rising risks and surging insurance costs change how traffic moves through the waterway.<\/p>\n
Access is no longer straightforward for many vessels.<\/p>\n
Thailand said on Tuesday one of its oil tankers, owned by Bangchak Corporation, had passed through the strait after talks with Iranian authorities, while a second vessel remains waiting for clearance alongside other ships seeking safe transit.<\/p>\n
Recent attacks and ongoing uncertainty have left shipowners deciding whether to enter the waterway at all, with decisions now shaped by both safety risks and rising costs.<\/p>\n
Map showing the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route linking the Persian Gulf to global markets. – AP Photo <\/p>\n
War risk insurance premiums have surged since the escalation began on February 28, with rates rising several-fold in a matter of weeks.<\/p>\n
David Osler, finance editor at Lloyd\u2019s List, said, \u201cBefore the fighting, the typical rates for Strait of Hormuz were 0.15% to 0.25% of hull value for a one-week policy. Since the conflict began, quotes are as high as 5% to 10% of hull value.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a very large crude carrier worth around $100 million (\u20ac90 million), that can mean several million euros in additional costs for a single transit.<\/p>\n
Insurance is still available, but often at levels that make transits significantly more expensive and harder to justify.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they want to make the trip \u2013 and can find a crew that will agree to do the job \u2013 they are not being held back by lack of insurance,” he said.<\/p>\n
Instead, decisions are being driven largely by safety concerns.<\/p>\n
Maritime specialist Mustapha Zehhaf said some shipping companies are avoiding the strait altogether due to the risks.<\/p>\n
He said vessels that do transit are adjusting their routes and, in some cases, sailing closer to the Iranian coast.<\/p>\n
Related<\/p>\n
Higher insurance costs and security risks are forcing shipowners to reassess whether to transit the strait at all.<\/p>\n
There are few alternatives. Pipelines such as Saudi Arabia\u2019s East-West route or the UAE\u2019s Fujairah line can bypass Hormuz to some extent, but most exports still depend on it.<\/p>\n
If the situation continues, energy analyst Bill Farren-Price, head of the gas programme at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, said it would amount to a supply shock for global energy markets.<\/p>\n
Prices are expected to rise as supply tightens and shortages begin to feed through, before higher costs start to curb demand.<\/p>\n
He also said there was no realistic military way to fully secure the strait and little sign of a diplomatic solution in the near term.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cMuch worse \u2014 this was always the Armageddon scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ships attemping passage through the Strait of Hormuz are increasingly having to coordinate with Iranian authorities, as rising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[26],"tags":[15816,487,419,39,16392,16393,101],"class_list":["post-36868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-persian-gulf","tag-bangchak-corporation","tag-insurance","tag-iranian-authorities","tag-persian-gulf","tag-safety-risks","tag-security-risks","tag-strait-of-hormuz"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}