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Iran Conflict 2026
12AUG

500 ships idle as Hormuz stays shut

3 min read
14:52UTC

Zero new tankers crossed Hormuz in the 24 hours after Trump's signature; more than 500 ships stayed anchored as Bimco called a crossing very risky.

ConflictDeveloping
Key takeaway

Brent priced an open strait that no tanker actually crossed; insurers still block transit.

Zero Hormuz tankers transited in the 24 hours after Trump's 16 June signature, despite his declaration that the strait was open. The two crossings logged on 15-16 June were toll passages under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) authority, Iran's military force that controls mine routes and passage conditions, not a reopening . More than 500 ships remain parked in The Gulf 1. BIMCO, the world's largest shipowner association, calls a crossing "very risky": the floating mines are still live, no IRGC order has cleared the lanes, and not one Protection and Indemnity (P&I) club, the London-based mutual marine insurers, has lifted its Hormuz war-risk exclusion 2.

The insurance point drives the lanes more than the mines do. A tanker without P&I cover cannot dock, because terminals and lenders refuse an uninsured hull. The blockade now runs through London insurance underwriters as much as through Iranian mines, and every owner knows it. Jakob Larsen, BIMCO's chief safety officer, said owners "still consider it very risky to commence transits at this point" while the mines stand uncleared.

Brent Crude, the global benchmark that prices roughly two-thirds of internationally traded oil, fell to between $78.82 and $81.55 on the signing, down as much as 5 per cent 3, near the two-month low it touched a week ago on deal optimism . Markets priced the expectation of an open strait. No moving ship lay behind the fall, because the lanes held zero new transits. The price moved; the cargo did not.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

When a ship sails through a war zone, it needs special war-risk insurance. The P&I clubs, mutual insurance associations based in London, provide this cover for roughly 90 per cent of the world's ships. They said on 16 June that the Hormuz strait is still too dangerous to cover, because Iranian military mines remain in the water and nobody has officially certified them as swept. Without that cover, a shipowner who loses a vessel in the strait cannot claim for the loss. No credible insurer will touch an active mine zone. This is why 500 ships are sitting in the Gulf, not because their owners do not want to move, but because sailing uninsured through an uncleared mine field is commercially and legally impossible.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

The 500-ship backlog and zero-transit outcome have two distinct root causes. The mine threat is physical: CENTCOM's own assessment by mid-May was that 90 per cent of Iran's naval mine stockpile was warehoused, not in-water, but the remaining deployed mines have not been certified as swept. Bimco's Jakob Larsen cited active mines as the primary safety barrier.

The P&I club constraint operates through the International Group of P&I Clubs, which covers roughly 90 per cent of the world's ocean-going tonnage. The group sets a collective de-risk bar that no individual member club can unilaterally lower without triggering reinsurance withdrawal by the London market. P&I clubs cannot issue standard hull and liability cover for a zone the Lloyd's Joint War Committee lists as enhanced-risk without a UN resolution or government certification of safety.

What could happen next?
  • Consequence

    P&I de-listing of Hormuz requires mine clearance certification or a UN resolution; the 60-day nuclear talks window does not address either condition.

  • Risk

    Oil markets pricing a reopening that has no ships behind it face a correction risk if Friday's ceremony also fails to produce mine clearance progress.

First Reported In

Update #130 · Trump signed the war over; it kept going

Argus Media· 17 Jun 2026
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Different Perspectives
Anwar Gargash, UAE presidential diplomatic adviser
Anwar Gargash, UAE presidential diplomatic adviser
Gargash warned the region cannot stay trapped between "neither war nor peace", naming the stalemate itself as unsustainable for a Gulf state hosting US forces and absorbing the shipping-risk cost without being party to either the strike decisions or the corridor talks.
Shipping and insurance underwriters
Shipping and insurance underwriters
War-risk premiums are still set against an active blockade and a fatal Bab el-Mandeb attack with an unresolved vessel identity. A disabling strike and a diplomatic "advanced" claim pulling in opposite directions gives underwriters no single signal to reprice cover against.
Pakistan and Qatar (Oman corridor mediators)
Pakistan and Qatar (Oman corridor mediators)
Pakistan's defence minister said matters are "shaping up in favor of peace" on Hormuz and a Qatari spokesperson called the Iran-Oman reopening talks advanced. Both are publicly ahead of Tehran's own security council, which has just disowned the deal's significance.
United States Central Command / President Trump
United States Central Command / President Trump
CENTCOM confirmed a helicopter strike disabled a container ship that tried to evade the blockade, and Trump said the US "totally controls" the Strait of Hormuz. Washington is treating evasion of the blockade as grounds for disabling fire rather than the redirection tactic CENTCOM used through July.
Mohsen Rezaei, Iran's Supreme National Security Council
Mohsen Rezaei, Iran's Supreme National Security Council
Rezaei told China's ambassador Hormuz reopens only when the US ends the war and unblocks Iran's funds, and that the Oman transit deal "will have no impact" on that decision. He is drawing a hard line between the technical corridor track and the political settlement his council controls.
Yemen's internationally recognised government and affected communities
Yemen's internationally recognised government and affected communities
SABA reported at least 17 soldiers killed at Saudi-backed camps in eastern Yemen as tanker use of Bab el-Mandeb fell. The fighting adds civilian and supply risks to a route ships use when Hormuz is unsafe.