IMO Says Hormuz Still Unsafe to Cross, Calls Iranian Tolls Unlawful

IMO Says Hormuz Still Unsafe to Cross, Calls Iranian Tolls Unlawful The maritime regulator's chief signals the chokepoint that handled 20% of global LNG and oil flows stays effectively shut, keeping a Middle East risk premium alive. The head of the International Maritime Organization told Montel on Monday (2026-06-01) that the Strait of Hormuz remains too dangerous for ships to cross, and that any tolls Iran might levy on transiting vessels would breach maritime law. IMO secretary-general Arsenio Dominguez said a full reopening would require guaranteed safety for seafarers.⁷ That matters because the strait carried roughly 20% of the world's LNG and oil before the US-Israel war with Iran began in late February, and traffic came to an effective halt when the conflict started on 28 February.^7,2 A regulator publicly declaring the route unsafe is not a market mover on its own. But it tells shippers and underwriters the diplomatic path to normal traffic is still nowhere in sight. Dominguez's comments land on a market that has spent more than three months pricing intermittent disruption rather than a clean reopening or a full closure. Brent North Sea crude, the international benchmark, traded back above $100 a barrel in mid-May as the stalemate dragged on, according to Asia Financial.⁵ The lack of a credible ceasefire is the wall every cargo keeps hitting. The toll question is the newer wrinkle. By framing any Iranian transit fee as unlawful, the IMO is pre-empting a scenario where Tehran reopens the strait on its own terms and tries to monetise the chokepoint. The Economist noted the contrast with the Turkish straits, which are governed by the 1936 Montreux Convention and sit entirely within Turkey's territorial waters, whereas Hormuz is shared with Oman and carries different legal obligations.⁴ An unlawful-toll regime would leave owners and charterers exposed to disputes even if the shooting stops. For LNG specifically, the freeze has held longer than oil. Analysts told Montel that further laden LNG vessels were unlikely to pass through Hormuz in the short term without an effective regional ceasefire, despite one recent crossing.² Insurance has become trickier to obtain, and vessels continue to avoid the strait for fear of being caught in the crossfire should the fragile US-Iranian truce collapse, analysts said on 21 May (2026-05-21).¹ There have been tentative signs of movement, none of them a turning point. A non-laden, Panama-flagged LNG carrier, the Sohar LNG, owned by Muscat-based Oman Shipping, edged toward the strait hugging the Omani coastline in early April (2026-04-02), raising the prospect of a first West-East crossing by a ballast vessel since the war began.⁶ On the oil side, three supertankers laden with crude passed through the strait in mid-May amid the truce, each capable of carrying 2 million barrels, according to shipping data cited by Al Jazeera.³ Those crossings show the route is not hermetically sealed. They also show what passage now requires. Serifos, chartered by Thai state-owned PTT, was among seven vessels for which Malaysia sought transit clearance from Iran, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters via LSEG and Kpler data.³ Ships are moving only with explicit Iranian sign-off, hugging Omani waters, and largely in ballast rather than fully laden. That is not a functioning chokepoint. The split between oil and LNG flows is the detail worth tracking. Crude tankers have managed a handful of supervised transits; laden LNG carriers have stayed away almost entirely.^3,2 Qatari and other Gulf LNG that normally feeds Asian and European buyers is the cargo most exposed to a prolonged freeze, and the one least likely to test the strait first. For European gas, the read-through runs through replacement, not direct exposure. Gulf LNG kept out of the market tightens the global pool that Europe competes for, supporting TTF and JKM rather than any US benchmark. The packet offers no live TTF print, so the channel is the squeeze on available cargoes rather than a quantified hub move. What to watch now is whether the recent oil transits broaden into laden LNG crossings, or whether Dominguez's safety bar holds traffic back. Analysts continue to expect few laden LNG passages in the short term absent a real ceasefire.² The toll question is the other live wire: if Iran reopens the strait and starts charging, the legal fight the IMO is flagging could keep effective capacity constrained long after the security risk eases.⁷