Fars News, the Iranian state wire that set out the Strait of Hormuz transit arrangement with Oman on Thursday 6 August, used the same account to deny any 3 per cent or 7 per cent cargo-value tariff, saying charges will strictly reflect operational services rendered1. It did not itemise which services, name a rate, or say who would collect.
Reuters had reported on Tuesday 4 August, citing a senior Iranian official and two regional officials, that Iran sought 5 to 7 per cent of cargo value and Oman around 3 per cent2. IranWire's write-up flags the sequence: the wire report ran hours before the state denial3. Both accounts can hold at different points in one negotiation, and neither has been published as a document. This dispute sits inside a draft Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi had already approved in preliminary form, still awaiting sign-off above him, so the commercial core of the deal remains open while its diplomatic shell is nearly closed.
The gap between the two accounts costs real money. A fully laden VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier) moves about two million barrels. At $90 a barrel that cargo is worth $180m, so 5 per cent comes to $9m a transit and 3 per cent to $5.4m. Pilotage, escort and traffic management across a 33km passage would absorb a small fraction of either figure. Taxing a chokepoint and billing for a service at it are different businesses, and here the difference between them runs to millions per crossing. A charterer cannot enter a Hormuz transit into a voyage estimate while the two versions stand side by side.
