WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump just threw out a demand of a 20 per cent reimbursement on cargo shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, or roughly US$30 million (S$39 million) on full supertankers carrying oil.

That’s based on current oil prices of about US$80 per barrel. Supertankers can hold about 2 million barrels of crude.

In contrast, Iran had been charging as much as US$2 million per voyage on an ad hoc basis, people familiar with the matter have said.

Trump on July 13 reinstated the US blockade of Iranian ships transiting Hormuz and said the US would become the waterway’s “GUARDIAN”, adding that the US “as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20 per cent on all cargo shipped”. The White House did not provide other details on Trump’s fee proposal, including how it would be administered or whether it had been communicated to US allies in the Gulf.

The shipping industry reacted with surprise and some scepticism.

Nearly a dozen people involved in shipping markets, including some whose tankers have passed through Hormuz in recent weeks, said they had had no warning of Trump’s announcement of a potential fee on cargoes crossing the waterway. Given the lack of detail, they said it was too early know how any plan would shape their decisions about transit. One shipping captain, who asked not to be named, described such a fee as akin to highway robbery.

The battle for control over Hormuz is seen as critical to both the US and Iran as a fragile ceasefire has fallen apart. The strait normally accounts for about a fifth of the world’s oil and gas flows.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in a social media post, said “absolutely right. Whoever provides secure and safe passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz should be compensated for this service.” He said that “20 per cent is of course too much”, adding “We will be fair.” BLOOMBERG

Trump’s Hormuz demand implies fee of $39 million per supertanker