Oil transport in the Persian Gulf is becoming more expensive and dangerous. With the conflict in the region ongoing, oil companies are using huge tankers to shuttle oil outside the Strait of Hormuz to avoid attacks. Each trip can cost up to $40 million, but leaving the oil stranded is still economically worse than absorbing the higher freight costs and selling the oil at thinner margins.
To keep shipments moving, sailors are being offered up to $25,000 per round trip, sometimes more than oilers and cadets would earn in an entire year back home. Many sailors from India, the Philippines and China are signing up despite recent attacks on ships near the Strait, according to reports. Meanwhile, shipowners are making larger profits by taking on the risks and keeping oil flowing to global markets.
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Despite the risks, crude oil exports from the Middle East rose above pre-war levels on four of the seven days in the last week of September, according to provisional data from ship-tracking firm Kpler. However, senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Ali Fadavi said in a televised interview Sunday night that only 3 million to 4 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) are now moving through the route, dismissing the amount as “negligible” compared with pre-war traffic.
Fadavi said that, for the first time, no U.S. vessels were present in the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, the Sea of Oman or even the northern Indian Ocean, and that U.S. warships are “100 percent vulnerable” to IRGC attacks.
Data from Kpler showed that crude exports from the region exceeded pre-war levels on Sept. 24 and between Sept. 27 and 29, rising to 19.5 million to 22.5 million bpd. Around the same time, Iran claimed success in attacking ships, including U.S. Navy vessels, near the Strait of Hormuz. Iran said the strikes had forced Washington to move its warships farther from the Iranian coast.
READ: Iran denies Trump’s claim of diplomacy talks (August 3, 2026)
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz will not reopen until seven Iranian conditions set out in a June interim agreement with the U.S. are met.
Iran presented a proposal during the United Nations General Assembly under which the Strait of Hormuz waterway could be reopened and normal maritime passage restored within seven days if the conditions were met. The U.S. responded to the proposal last week through Qatari intermediaries.
“The position of the Islamic Republic of Iran is completely clear and firm, and the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened until our seven conditions, based on the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, are met,” Qalibaf, who is Iran’s top negotiator, was quoted as saying.
He said Washington “must understand that the period of dragging out the (diplomatic) process and dictating one-sided demands is over.”