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strait of hormuz shipping attack energy risk

The Strait of Hormuz is barely 33 kilometres wide at its narrowest point, with navigable shipping channels narrower still, and it is the only sea route out of the Persian Gulf. Roughly a fifth of global oil consumption and a substantial share of the world's liquefied natural gas, most of it Qatari, moves through this single corridor. There is no practical alternative sea route; pipeline capacity around the strait exists but covers only a fraction of what normally transits by tanker. That geography is why even a single unclaimed attack on a single vessel reverberates through freight and insurance markets far beyond the Gulf.

• War-risk insurance premiums for Hormuz transits, already elevated since the conflict began, are reported by shipbroking sources to have risen sharply again in the hours since the strike.
• Several major tanker operators are understood to be pausing new bookings through the strait pending clearer guidance from naval escorts and underwriters.
• Charter rates for vessels willing to accept the current risk premium have moved upward, a pattern consistent with previous periods of Gulf tension.
• The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency and equivalent US Navy advisories have both flagged the strait as an area of heightened risk in the past week.