Tanker captains paid up to $US100k a month to sail Strait of Hormuz

Captains navigating the Strait of Hormuz are being paid as much as $US100,000 (about $143,000) a month, according to industry insiders and maritime unions, as Gulf oil producers scramble to keep crude moving out of the region. Indian marine engineer Harshal Singh told a podcast in late September that a captain who normally earns about 15 lakh rupees ($22,000) a month can make roughly 1 crore rupees ($143,000) in a single month in the strait. Facebook ads seen by the ABC show seafarers in Asia being offered double or triple their usual pay plus 'danger money' bonuses worth tens of thousands of dollars. Manoj Yadav, general secretary of the Mumbai-based Forward Seamen's Union of India, told the ABC that owners are offering double, and sometimes five times, normal wages for a Hormuz transit.

The sums reflect the danger. At least 24 seafarers have been killed in 100 confirmed incidents since the war began, according to the UN's International Maritime Organization, and the UK Maritime Trade Operations has logged nine attacks on tankers inside the strait this month alone. The US Navy-led Joint Maritime Information Center said last weekend that while US forces intercept vessels trading with Iran, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets ships in the strait and harasses them with drone overflights and surveillance. The attacks stepped up after reports last month that crude shipments were edging back toward prewar levels.

The strait carries about 20 per cent of the world's oil and gas trade, and Iran placed an effective chokehold on it at the end of February. The US responded with its own blockade on Iranian shipments, and the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding in June aimed at ending the war. Transit remains below prewar levels, when more than 100 commercial vessels crossed daily. More ships are taking the south corridor route along the Omani coast rather than the north corridor close to Iran, and some make 'dark journeys' at night with GPS signalling switched off — some with Iran's knowledge via diplomatic negotiations, and others without, marine intelligence companies have told the ABC.

Former Australian naval officer Jennifer Parker told the ABC the problem is less about insurance than about finding crews willing to make the hazardous transit. In mid-August, US President Donald Trump said the US Navy had removed or detonated all mines in the strait, and the Navy has begun offering assistance and coverage to ships using the Omani coast route, Parker said, adding that uncrewed service vessels are being used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that Iran has 'lost complete control' of the strait and that oil is flowing at almost prewar levels. The IRGC disputes that: adviser Majid Mirahmadi said an average of just 10 ships a day transited in October, against 125 before the war. Kpler data cited by the ABC shows transits were starting to climb back toward the prewar baseline in late September.

Unions warn seafarers risk exploitation and may have little choice. Yadav said some unwilling crews are pressured to sail under threat of replacement and being charged repatriation costs, describing 'two types of offers'. Commercial ship company Sinokor is believed to be offering some of the highest incentives, with Bloomberg reporting it advertised six months' extra salary for a return voyage lasting about a month. India, one of the world's largest suppliers of seafarers alongside the Philippines and China, has more than 4,500 workers on commercial vessels in the Persian Gulf, according to its External Affairs ministry. RP Veettil, president of the Sailors Union of India, told the ABC companies should provide hazard pay rather than expect workers to join vessels passing through what he called a 'warlike area'.