The $2 million question at Hormuz: Iran's toll booth on the world's oil keeps prices high

Oct 5 — Crude exports bypassing the Strait of Hormuz surged in September. Yet oil prices remain stubbornly high. One possible reason, Al Jazeera reports, is hiding in plain sight: Iran may be charging a secret toll for passage through the world's most important oil chokepoint. What began as an ad-hoc wartime exaction has hardened into something resembling an institution. Since late July, Tehran has been collecting between $1 million and $2 million per vessel transit through the strait — roughly $1 a barrel for a fully laden very large crude carrier. Iran's parliament has since codified a transit-fee framework, and Tehran now speaks of charging 5 to 7 per cent of cargo value, with Oman reportedly discussing around 3 per cent. Analysts estimate that at pre-conflict volumes, a 7 per cent toll could generate over $100 billion a year — rivalling Iran's oil revenues without pumping an extra barrel. The collection machinery has a name: the Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority, which sells tankers "safe passage" insurance, traffic control and emergency response. Washington calls it extortion. The United States sanctioned the authority on July 29, and in September the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated BitBank, a Tehran cryptocurrency exchange, for moving hundreds of millions of dollars in bitcoin from toll collections to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Part of the toll money, in other words, now travels as crypto. For shipowners, the arithmetic is brutal. The fee lands on top of war-risk insurance that trade press already places as high as $10 million per Hormuz transit. In late July, the Lloyd's Market Association published a model clause telling hull underwriters they owe no indemnity for any Hormuz transit fee — Iran demands payment, and the insurer withdraws coverage for paying. One insurance source called it a catch-22: a charge the payee cannot lawfully receive and the insurer will not cover is not a price but a liability waiting for a shipowner. The system survived even a tentative ceasefire. Shipping sources told industry press this week that Iran's approval regime remains unchanged: vessels deemed affiliated with the US or Israel stay blocked; all others must submit to verification by the IRGC Navy. Tankers received radio broadcasts warning that vessels transiting without permission "will be destroyed." Roughly a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas moves through the strait — about 21 million barrels of crude a day at normal capacity. Every dollar of toll, every million in insurance, is ultimately priced into the fuel bought by Asian refiners, truckers and households. The war's most durable tax may turn out to be the one levied at the toll booth, with no ledger and no appeal.