The reason given for India's exemption is medicine. Amir Hayat-Moghaddam, deputy chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said the exemption was extended to India because Tehran buys medicines from New Delhi, Marine Insight reported. Chinese ships were granted access, he said, to strengthen political and diplomatic ties and to secure Beijing's support.
That makes this something other than a reopening. The strait is not open; four named countries have been carved out of a restriction that still applies to everyone else.
Key numbers
- 4 nations exempted from Iran's Hormuz transit restrictions: India, Iraq, Qatar and China
- 30% of India's imported crude oil shipments that pass through Hormuz, down from about 70% in the past
- 90% of India's LPG cargo that still moves through the strait
- 70 attacks on commercial ships between February and August, according to the International Maritime Organisation, in which 19 seafarers died
Some ships pay, others do not
Iran is collecting transit fees from Indian and Chinese ships, Hayat-Moghaddam said, while Qatari vessels are passing without payment. He did not say whether Iraqi ships pay. According to sources cited by Marine Insight, the United States is not stopping these ships from crossing the waterway either.
The announcement was first made on Tuesday, OilPrice.com reported, at a point when Iranian export flows are under pressure from the months-long US naval blockade of the country's ports. The two reports I read give the official's first name differently, as Amir in one and Ahmad in the other, and describe him as deputy chairman and vice chairman of the same committee.
India's exposure runs wider than crude
India imports almost 90% of the crude oil it uses, and about 30% of those energy shipments pass through Hormuz. That share was around 70% in the past, before New Delhi widened its supplier base to include the United States, Russia, West Africa and Fujairah in the UAE.
Crude is the smaller part of the problem. About 90% of India's LPG cargo still passes through the strait, more than 50% of its LNG comes from Qatar and the UAE, and fertilizer carriers use the same route.
In plain words: a chokepoint is a narrow stretch of sea that a large share of world trade has to cross. When access to one is controlled, the cargo does not disappear, but it has to travel further or wait, and the extra cost and delay show up in the price of oil, gas and the goods made from them.
What the reports confirm, and what they do not
The European Union said Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy has instructed ships to hand over identity documents and details of their cargo, its origin and its destination to secure passage.
The human toll is the part both reports treat as settled. Of the 19 seafarers killed in the attacks counted by the IMO, 15 were Indian nationals, and 24 Indian seafarers have died in the West Asia conflict in total.
India has urged both sides to use dialogue and diplomacy to keep energy supplies moving and uphold freedom of navigation. Neither report I read states a price move in crude or gas following the announcement, and neither gives a date for when the exemptions might be reviewed.