At least two tankers have passed through the Strait of Hormuz while impersonating ships scrapped long ago, as Iran continues to exert a tight hold on traffic through the waterway. The so-called zombie tankers used the identities of defunct Japanese and Liberian vessels, Lloyd’s List reported.
Passage through the strait, which in normal times handles around 20% of global oil supplies, has almost ground to a halt since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran. Around 16 vessels traversed the area between Friday and Monday, with most of them heading out of the Gulf and sailing between Iran’s Qeshm and Larak islands — a route that has been dubbed the “Tehran toll booth” due to payments allegedly made by some shipowners to ensure safe passage. One vessel is reported to have paid Iran a fee of $2 million.
Before the war, around 120 tankers would pass through the strait every day. Tehran has said that “non-hostile” ships will be allowed to transit through the strait, provided they are from countries that “neither participate in nor support acts of aggression against Iran.”