The United Arab Emirates (UAE) state oil company assessed that full flows through the Strait of Hormuz will not resume until 2027, even if a deal is signed quickly1. Reopening the strait means clearing mines, restoring inspection systems and repricing the war-risk insurance that underwrites every tanker movement. The UAE ambassador to Washington put it plainly: "a simple ceasefire isn't enough." In practice a signed deal reopens Hormuz on paper while the barrels stay stranded for eighteen months.
The market has already spent the optimism. Brent Crude settled near $86.80 on Friday, a three-month low, after falling more than 10 per cent from its early-June level as traders priced a deal as probable. The region's own producer now says the barrels behind that price are eighteen months out. Oil futures do not trade at weekends, so Monday's open is the next genuine test of whether that gap holds.
The insurance, not the spot price, runs the strait. Lloyd's of London, the London market whose war-risk register governs whether tankers can obtain cover, has not de-listed Hormuz. The trigger for de-listing is a United Nations Security Council resolution or a government certification, neither of which exists. Until the underwriters move, a signed memorandum reopens the strait on paper while premiums keep the barrels where they are. That is the mechanism the headline hides: the document the negotiators are chasing in Geneva does not touch the register in London that actually decides when oil sails.
