finance
Tanker traffic through Strait of Hormuz rises, with some vessels exiting near Iran and others near Oman
At least six tankers exited the Persian Gulf near Oman on Sunday while eight others made U-turns earlier. Iran announced plans to charge service fees for passage through the strait.
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com. At least eight oil tankers and LNG carriers made U-turns on Friday and Saturday while near the Omani coast outbound from the Gulf. Four of those vessels then moved north and exited the strait close to Iran, while the others remained near the Oman coast.
Iran’s Ambassador to China, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, stated this weekend that Iran will charge service fees for passage through the Strait of Hormuz. The fees will not be tolls, and China and other countries friendly with Iran would receive special considerations, he said.
“These new arrangements will be concerning guaranteeing the security of passage through the Straits of Hormuz, supervision of the passage of the vessels … and also guaranteeing and dealing with the environmental consequences of the massive number of ships,” Fazli was quoted as saying.
Some shipowners and operators continue to move vessels through the strait with transponders switched off. Tanker traffic has picked up pace in recent weeks, OilPrice.com reported, though the lack of reliable estimates of actual volume flows remains a major unknown for the global oil market.
