The Strait of Hormuz Is Now Paying Captains $150,000 to Risk the Crossing

A tanker captain preparing to steer a ship through the Strait of Hormuz now faces a calculation that would have been unthinkable before the Middle East conflict: whether the risk of being hit by a missile or drone is worth a six-figure payday.

Shipowners are offering some tanker captains as much as $100,000 a month, plus bonuses of up to $50,000 for each passage through the strategic waterway, according to the Financial Times. That can take the value of a monthly package to about $150,000, compared with normal tanker captain pay of roughly $15,000 a month.

Ordinary seafarers are also receiving large risk premiums. Sailors whose normal wages can start at about $1,500 a month are being offered as much as four to six times their usual pay for Hormuz crossings.

The surge in compensation reflects the rapidly changing economics of shipping through one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints.

The Strait of Hormuz normally handles about one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flows. But vessel traffic has fallen sharply as attacks on commercial shipping have increased during the conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran.

Only seven commodity vessels crossed the strait on Tuesday, the lowest number since July 23, according to data from analytics firm Kpler. Crude oil movements fell to about 10.1 million barrels per day, around 74% of pre-war levels.

That decline has transformed the cost of moving a barrel of oil.

Tanker freight rates for voyages through Hormuz have climbed to about $1.3 million a day, compared with roughly $20,000 to $50,000 before the crisis, according to figures cited by the Financial Times. War-risk insurance premiums have risen to between 6% and 10% of a vessel’s hull value, potentially adding as much as $20 million to the cost of insuring a large tanker voyage.

Fuel costs have risen as well. Fuel oil used by supertankers at Fujairah reached $686 per tonne on Monday, up 67% from a year earlier, according to Argus data cited by the Financial Times.

For shipowners, paying a captain an additional $50,000 to make a dangerous crossing may appear small relative to the revenue generated by a tanker and the cost of leaving the vessel idle.

But the premiums also highlight the human cost of keeping Gulf oil moving.

The International Maritime Organization has recorded dozens of attacks on commercial vessels since the conflict began, with 24 seafarers killed, according to the Financial Times.

Some crews are reportedly being pressured to sail despite their concerns about entering the danger zone. Manoj Yadav, secretary-general of the Forward Seamen’s Union of India, told the Financial Times that some shipowners had threatened unwilling crew members with replacement or other penalties.

The risks have also changed how ships navigate the waterway. Some vessels are travelling at night and switching off GPS signals, while operators are using alternative arrangements to reduce the time ships spend exposed in the Gulf.

One increasingly common strategy is to move crude to waters near Fujairah, outside the Persian Gulf, where cargo can be transferred between vessels for onward delivery. That adds another layer of ships, fuel, insurance and handling costs to a supply chain that normally depends on direct voyages through Hormuz.

Despite the disruption, Middle Eastern oil exports have not collapsed. Reuters reported this week that crude exports from the Gulf and alternative routes had helped compensate for reduced Hormuz flows, with overall Middle Eastern crude exports recovering toward pre-war levels. But the logistics of moving that oil have become considerably more expensive.

The Strait of Hormuz remains difficult to replace. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has estimated that about 20.9 million barrels per day of oil passed through the waterway in the first half of 2025, equivalent to about 20% of global petroleum liquids consumption and roughly one-quarter of global maritime oil trade.

That dependence is now being reflected in the pay offered to the people willing to take ships through it.

The money may be enough to persuade some crews to sail.
But it cannot make the waterway safe.

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