Iran demands rial tolls and bank guarantees from ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz

Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz was already a war-risk problem. Now it is a payments problem too. Iran has moved from harassing and vetting ships to building a more formal toll system for passage, and Washington has answered with a sanctions warning that basically says: pay, and you may get punished anyway. That leaves shipowners stuck in the middle of a chokepoint that carries about 20% of global oil flows. (lloydslist.com) ### What changed? The new piece is structure. Iran has set up what shipping outlets describe as a Persian Gulf Strait Authority to approve transits and collect tolls, building on an earlier IRGC-run “safe corridor” system that already required clearance codes, escorts, and detailed disclosures about ownership and cargo. This is not just informal extortion at sea anymore — it looks more like a bureaucracy for controlled passage. (msn.com) ### What is Iran asking ships to do? Iranian demands now go beyond a one-off fee. Operators have reported multimillion-dollar toll demands, and the U.S. Treasury says Tehran is also soliciting guarantees for safe passage. Those demands can take several forms — regular currency, digital assets(msn.com)ked, another can be used. (lloydslist.com) ### Why do bank guarantees matter so much? Because a bank guarantee turns a shaky side payment into something closer to enforceable financial leverage. A shipowner can maybe hide or finesse an ad hoc transfer. A guarantee pulls banks, insurers, and compliance teams into the chain. That is the catch — once finance touches the transit, the sanctions risk spreads far beyond the vessel itself. (ofac.treasury.gov) ### Why did the U.S. step in now? On May 1, OFAC published a specific alert saying U.S. and non-U.S. persons face sanctions risk if they make these payments or solicit guarantees for passage. Treasury’s FAQ is even blunter: toll payments to the Government of Iran or the IRGC for safe passage are not authorized for U.S. persons, and non-U.S. firms can face second(ofac.treasury.gov)ic to use. (ofac.treasury.gov) ### Is shipping actually moving through Hormuz? Yes, but at reduced and tightly managed levels. Lloyd’s List says limited traffic has been funneled through an IRGC-controlled corridor, while Kpler has described severe disruption, stranded vessels, and transit volumes far below normal baselines. UKMTO warnings from early May also show the security picture is stil(ofac.treasury.gov)vity. (lloydslist.com) ### Why can’t ships just go around? Because Hormuz is not a lane you casually replace. Gulf exporters can reroute some cargo through pipelines or alternative ports, but not enough to make the chokepoint irrelevant. And for many tankers and container services, the real asset is schedule reliability. A route that is te(lloydslist.com)even partial control matters. (kpler.com) ### Who gets squeezed first? Shipowners, charterers, insurers, and banks. But the pressure rolls outward fast — refiners waiting on crude, traders pricing freight, and importers paying more for delayed cargoes. The weird part is that Iran does not need to fully close the strait to create damage. It just nee(kpler.com)er for rivals to unwind. (lloydslist.com) ### Bottom line This is why the story matters. Iran is trying to convert geographic control into financial control, and the U.S. is trying to make that monetization unusable. So the strait is no longer just a place where ships might get hit. It is a place where every transit can become a compliance decision — and that is exactly how a regional war turns into a global shipping shock. (lloydslist.com)