IranStrait of Hormuz — Live Status Monitor
Current status (July 14, 2026 / Day 138): The toll is gone; the blockade is real. On July 14, roughly five hours before it was due to take effect, President Trump scrapped the 20% cargo levy he had announced a day earlier, replacing it with unspecified “Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.” It was killed not by law or by Iran but by the shipping industry, which largely refused it, and by Gulf leaders who counter-offered — at Tuesday’s prices a 20% levy meant roughly $32 million per supertanker, against the up-to-$2 million Iran has reportedly charged on its own lane. The other half of the announcement did not reverse: the US naval blockade of vessels transiting to and from Iranian ports and coastal areas went live at 4 p.m. ET (20:00 GMT), and the Treasury moved the same day against the Shamkhani shipping and sanctions-evasion network. Iran answered by declaring the June 17 memorandum dead — Deputy Foreign Minister Gharibabadi said Tehran now has “no commitments” under it, including regarding the strait, and that a blockade cannot force it back to talks. The IRGC claimed the tanker strikes outright, saying the ships were disabled after ignoring repeated warnings; a third vessel, the Stolt Magnesium, was hit off Oman with its crew safe, and the IMO counted two seafarers dead: “the cycle of escalation must end.” In practice the waterway is closing itself — Kpler counted ten crossings on July 13, nine of them on Iran’s route, against 147 the day before the war, with ING calling traffic “a trickle” as Brent touched $87. What to watch: whether the Gulf “investments” ever materialize, and whether the strikes on Abadan’s refinery mark a shift from maritime enforcement to economic warfare. This page tracks shipping, oil flows, and transit status in real time.
Real-time tracking of ship transit, oil flow, dual blockade status, carrier suspensions, war-risk insurance, and maritime incidents through the world's most critical energy chokepoint. Data sourced from AIS maritime feeds, Lloyd's war risk indices, UKMTO advisories, and verified OSINT. This page remains active as a permanent maritime intelligence asset beyond the current conflict.
Normal vs Current Flow
Strait Geography
Strait of Hormuz — Intelligence Briefing
Is the Strait of Hormuz open today?
Open in name, contested in fact, and emptying by the day. On July 14, 2026 President Trump abandoned the 20% cargo toll he had declared a day earlier — roughly five hours before it was due to take effect — replacing it with unspecified Gulf “Trade and Investment Deals” and insisting the strait is “open to ALL Ship traffic except for Iran.” The toll died because the shipping industry largely refused to pay it, not because the UN’s IMO had ruled such tolls illegal — the same finding Iran has ignored since March. What did not reverse is the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, which took effect at 4 p.m. ET that day. Iran, for its part, now claims no obligations at all: Deputy Foreign Minister Gharibabadi said the June 17 memorandum is void, including its provisions on the strait, which he called part of Iran’s national security, to be defended “whatever that costs.” The practical picture is worse than either declaration suggests: Kpler counted just ten verified crossings on July 13 — nine of them using Iran’s route — against 147 the day before the war began, and ING’s analysts wrote that Washington’s assurances “will offer little comfort to ships,” with crossings down to “just a trickle.” Masters should treat the whole strait as a live-fire environment: seven commercial vessels have now been struck since July 6, including the UAE tankers al-Bahiya and Mombasa (whose Indian crewman was the exchange’s first killed seafarer) and the Stolt Magnesium off Oman; the IRGC has claimed the strikes outright, saying vessels were disabled after ignoring repeated warnings and accusing the US of “inciting vessels to use an illegal route”; and US strikes have now run four consecutive nights, reaching west into Khuzestan.
How much oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz?
Under normal conditions, approximately 20–21 million barrels of oil per day pass through the strait — roughly 20% of global petroleum liquids. During the Iran blockade, this dropped to near zero for US-allied shipping, driving Brent crude above $116/barrel and triggering global energy emergency declarations.
How many ships pass through Hormuz per day?
Under normal conditions, 15–20 large tankers transit daily alongside LNG carriers, container ships, and naval vessels — totalling 35–50 commercial vessels per day. During the blockade, commercial tanker transit collapsed to near zero as Lloyd's war risk insurance premiums made transit commercially unviable at over 5% of vessel value.
Why is the Strait of Hormuz important?
The Strait is the world's most critical maritime chokepoint. It connects the Persian Gulf — home to Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, UAE, and Iran's oil fields — to global shipping lanes. Any disruption causes immediate global energy price spikes, supply shortages, and economic cascades across oil-importing nations.
What happened to Hormuz in 2026?
Iran imposed a selective blockade on February 28, 2026, at the war's start. The US imposed a parallel naval blockade of Iranian ports on April 13, creating a structural 'dual blockade' that largely closed the channel to normal commercial traffic for months and drove a global energy shock. Under the US-Iran memorandum signed June 17, 2026, both blockades were lifted — the US ended its blockade on June 18 — and the strait reopened, with commercial traffic surging on June 19 per ship-tracking data.
What is the war risk insurance rate for Hormuz?
War-risk premiums surged from roughly 0.05% before the war to over 5% during the peak blockade — a 100-fold increase that effectively priced commercial traffic out of the strait. Following the US-Iran deal, the lifting of the US blockade on June 18, and the June 19 reopening, premiums are expected to ease as transits resume and confidence returns, though the normalization of insurance rates typically lags the physical reopening.