Iran operating shipping ‘toll booth’ north of Larak Island

• Vessels use Iran-controlled Hormuz route
• Some pay millions for access
• Growing evidence of ‘dark’ and ‘zombie’ ships

An Iranian-approved northern corridor through the Strait of Hormuz has become a “Tehran toll booth”, Lloyd’s List has said, with dozens of vessels now using the alternate route and one forced to turn back.

The shipping news outlet has since March 13 traced 26 ships transiting via a detour off the Iranian coast close to Larak Island which is controlled by the Islamic regime.

It said no vessel has used the “normal” lane through the strait since the middle of the month as the conflict between the US, Israel and Iran continues.

Earlier this week the Iranian navy forced a St Kitts and Nevis-flagged container vessel to perform a U-turn while attempting to transit the contested waterway.

Speaking at the Lloyd’s List weekly risk briefing on Thursday, editor-in-chief Richard Meade said the ad hoc system first identified last week was becoming more entrenched.

Access is dependent on compliance with a “geopolitical” vetting process policed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including disclosure of vessel ownership and cargo details.

Iran has effectively consolidated maritime traffic around the island into a “standardised route”, Meade said.

“I don’t necessarily see that lasting, but we now have a situation where a chokepoint responsible for 20 percent of the world’s energy exports is effectively awaiting a VHF radio approval and a clearance code from a pilot boat in the IRGC.”

One tanker operator is understood to have paid a fee of about $2 million to transit the corridor. A container vessel negotiated passage by paying a fee, Lloyd’s List said, with both payments settled in Chinese yuan.

“We know that not everybody is paying and we know that governments are in diplomatic discussions with Iran to allow safe passage,” Tomer Raanan, a maritime analyst for Lloyd’s List, told the briefing.

“This is a Tehran toll booth. It’s Iran’s way of exerting control of what is happening in the strait.”

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Vessel operators are required to submit documentation, obtain clearance codes and, in some cases, accept escorted passage through the northern corridor.

Meade said the Islamic Republic was studying “new arrangements for safe passage” through the new route.

“We are seeing suggestions that the Iranian parliament is ready to pass a formalised version of this toll booth. This is all up in the air and new territory for everybody,” he said.

Iran’s UN mission said on Tuesday that “non-hostile vessels” would be allowed to pass if they coordinated with authorities, although it remains unclear how many shipmasters are willing to take up the offer.

Bridget Diakun, a senior risk and compliance expert with Lloyd’s List, said she had seen “one or two” ships do a re-route, in which they were about to go through Larak and then did a U-turn.

“It suggests there are still issues to work out [with the IRGC] or maybe things weren’t 100 percent confirmed,” Diakun said.

Lloyd’s List was founded in 1734 and is one of the world’s oldest continuously running authorities on global shipping.

It said that in addition to the 26 confirmed transits through the detour, there were a further 21 instances where it was unable to confirm route data due to a lack of a transponder signal.

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Since the beginning of the month until March 24, 142 vessels have transited the strait, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence. Around 70 percent of vessels have shown some form of Iranian nexus, including ownership, flag, sanctions exposure or trading ties.

Of those transits, 46 were conducted with automatic identification system (AIS) tracking switched off, illustrating the growing use of “dark” activity through the narrow waterway.

Tankers and gas carriers linked to Iran or so-called shadow fleet activity accounted for 86 percent of movements between March 18 and 24, up from 72 percent a week earlier, Lloyd’s List said.

In recent days, a gas carrier and a tanker had also assumed so-called “zombie” identities – taking on the details of vessels that had been scrapped or decommissioned.