Iran is turning the Gulf's escape routes into targets: tanker strikes have spread from Hormuz to Qatar and Fujairah

A tanker hit by three IRGC drones off Qatar, a suspected strike on a supertanker off Fujairah, and a record 12 attacks around Hormuz in a single week...

For months, the Gulf's answer to Iran was to go around it, loading oil at Fujairah outside the strait, piping Saudi crude to the Red Sea, and hugging Oman's coast under US escort.

Now Iran is hitting the workarounds themselves.

The cost lands long before any ship sinks.

War-risk insurance that ran about 0.25% of a tanker's value before the war now sits between 3% and 8%, and one marine insurance expert says it adds $7 to $8 to every barrel.

That's why oil can climb even with exports near prewar levels, because every voyage now carries the price of danger.

So if Fujairah and the middle of the Gulf aren't safe, where does the oil go?

Iran can no longer shut the strait, but by spreading the risk across the whole Gulf it slaps a tax on every barrel the world buys, and with just one US carrier in the region until late October, the Navy can't escort its way out of that math.

🄳🄾🄾🄼🄿🤖🅂🅃🄸🄽🄶