Oil tanker hiring costs exceed $1M per day amid Iran war disruptions

It now costs more than $1 million per day to rent a supertanker on the world’s most important oil route. Charter rates for very large crude carriers, the floating behemoths that move roughly 2 million barrels of oil each, surged to $1.035 million per day on the benchmark Middle East Gulf-to-China route on September 14, according to Baltic Exchange data. The culprit: a severe shortage of vessels willing or able to transit the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow chokepoint between Iran and Oman where a significant share of the world’s seaborne oil passes through. A strait in crisis About 20 miles wide at its narrowest point, the Strait of Hormuz is the bottleneck connecting Persian Gulf oil producers to the rest of the world. Before the current conflict between the US and Iran escalated around late February 2026, approximately 125 vessels transited the strait daily. Military action, blockades, and elevated security risks have since turned the shipping lane into something closer to a gauntlet. Earlier in 2026, VLCC rates had already climbed to as high as $650,000 per day during periods of escalating tension. At various points throughout the year, daily earnings for these vessels exceeded $48...