The shipping market is currently gripped by a frantic rush to charter vessels, with rates hitting levels that would have been unthinkable before the conflict. One supertanker operated by South Korea’s Sinokor shipping group has been provisionally booked to transport 2 million barrels from the Persian Gulf to India at a cost nine times higher than the standard benchmark for that route. This volatility reflects a broader industry trend where the cost of hiring a tanker in the Gulf has nearly doubled in a single week, climbing from $106,000 to over $190,000 per day.

Despite the desperate scramble, the market remains paralyzed by uncertainty. Major state-owned refiners in China and India have struggled to procure tankers for late-month loadings, citing both prohibitive costs and the lack of ironclad security guarantees for transit. As an executive at PetroChina noted, tankers are physically available, but the financial risk and the absence of assurances regarding exit from the strait have created a significant bottleneck in global oil logistics.