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Shipping executives fear the US-Iran peace agreement has cleared the path for charges to be introduced on the Strait of Hormuz after 60 days, setting a new regime for the waterway that was previously free to use.
Under the terms of the accord signed on Wednesday, Iran will negotiate with Oman and other Gulf states over the “future administration and maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz”.
The shipping industry is concerned the language opens the door for Iran to charge for use of the waterway or to start a fund similar to that used for the Strait of Malacca, which runs between Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
“The final outcome of these discussions must be a reinforcement of the central tenet that the Strait of Hormuz must remain free of charges,” said Philip Belcher, marine director of the tanker industry body Intertanko.
John Stawpert, marine director at the International Chamber of Shipping, said the reference to “maritime services” suggests “something equivalent to Malacca. It’s important to note that [Malacca] is a voluntary fund that states pay into, not industry,” he said, adding that the fund supported navigational aid and any oil spill responses.
“It didn’t exist before [in Hormuz] so it begs the question why suddenly there is a need for it in this region,” he added.
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The Strait of Hormuz has become a critical bargaining chip for Iran during its conflict with the US and Israel. Following the US-Israeli strikes in March, Tehran in effect closed the waterway to traffic, demanding a $2mn fee in bitcoin and insisting that it had mined the main shipping routes in and out of the Gulf.
Donald Trump mentioned the potential for the US to run the strait via a joint venture with Iran earlier in the conflict, while the White House has also considered trying to instigate a “VIP” lane for fee-paying vessels. At other times Trump and his administration have argued that it would be unacceptable for Iran to charge mandatory fees for passage.
JD Vance, the US vice-president, said on Thursday that international waterways “should be free of tolls”. He added the deal envisages the Omanis, the Iranians, and the Gulf working out “a proper security framework for the straits in the future”. “That’s not about tolling, that’s about ensuring that the straits are never used as a choke point for the global economy ever again,” he said.
Rather than pay a toll, countries whose vessels use the Strait of Malacca pay voluntarily into a pot used to compensate for any environmental damage and for studies on topics such as navigational routes. Japan is one of the biggest donors to the fund.
The Strait of Hormuz, which is significantly wider than Malacca, is due to be reopened to traffic on Friday as part of the peace agreement with Iran, which is bound not to charge fees for transit for at least 60 days.
On Thursday the US said it had lifted its naval blockade of Iranian ports. US Central Command said that its ships would remain in the area but “all US military blockade enforcement efforts have ceased”.
The Iranian news agency ISNA reported on Thursday that Iran would determine the future administration of the strait in consultation with Oman and that the term “maritime services” also referred to the collection of fees. Iran is not a party to the UN’s convention on the law of the sea that governs international maritime law.
Any effort to instigate fees in Hormuz would be vehemently opposed by Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as shipping industry bodies who insist that the strait’s status as an international waterway must be respected.
Talks over the future regime in the strait are likely to be fraught. Oman, whose territorial waters are on the western side of the strait, has already frustrated some of the Gulf states and the US. Trump last month warned Muscat to “behave like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them up”.
Oman has rejected a tolling system but has discussed the possibility of fees with Iran during the war.
“Muscat has never even considered the idea of tolls and the commitment to international law and freedom of navigation is unwavering. We are considering the possibility of lawful charges for services rendered in the future to cover environmental mitigation of the waterway, enhanced navigational management including pilotage and security,” a person briefed on the talks told the FT this month.
Following the signing of the agreement some ships, including tankers belonging to the major Chinese shipping company Cosco and an Italian car carrier, had already started to move through the strait on Thursday.
The movement came despite warnings sent to crews from Iran’s recently established Persian Gulf Strait Authority that until “the new operational status is officially declared, you are instructed to refrain from any actions, maneuvers [sic], or navigation near the Strait of Hormuz”.
Other shipping companies said that they were updating their risk assessments or cleaning the hulls of ships and readying them to leave.
Despite some risking an early exit, at least 550 vessels remain stranded in the Gulf, according to an FT analysis of Kpler data. More than 200 of those are crude oil and oil products tankers, the majority loaded with oil or refined fuels.
Cartography by Jana Tauschinski. Additional reporting by Steff Chavez
