Posted on 10/06/2026 4:47:45 AM PDT by tlozo
Sailors are reportedly being offered as much as $25,000 a trip to move trapped oil through the dangerous, war-rattled Persian Gulf – meaning producers are spending up to $40 million total for a multi-day trip...
The jaw-dropping payments – sometimes worth two or three times a sailor’s typical monthly salary – are an attempt to convince crew members to risk the potentially deadly strikes...
Fresh data on Monday showed the payouts are working, as crude exports through the Strait of Hormuz reached 16.5 million barrels per day in September – far above lows of 5 million barrels a day in March...
On Monday, Brent crude oil futures eased 1.5% to $100.74 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate crude slipped 1% to $90.16 a barrel on news oil is moving out of the Gulf at its fastest pace since the war started – even as attacks on vessels have ramped up.
In just the past two weeks, nine commercial vessels were attacked near the strait – resulting in two injuries and one seafarer’s death...
Producers have been hiring very large crude carriers, or VLCCs, to complete treacherous “shuttle runs,” which is when carriers enter the Gulf through the strait, load up at ports, exit through the strait and then transfer the oil to another vessel waiting just outside the waterway.
They’re swallowing record costs to do so, paying sailors a premium to risk being attacked in the region, but it’s better for them to sell the oil at thinner margins than let it sit trapped...
It’s also costing more to bring that oil to global markets. In late September, it cost more than $1.2 million per day to hire an oil supertanker to China – up from $231,400 the day before the war, and less than $40,000 a day in January...
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
These risky trips often involve moving at night with the windows closed, no lights and GPS signals switched off, according to reports.
25K + an early retirement plan
How could anyone turn that down.
Sal Marcogliano almost always talks about the crews and to pray for those poor underpaid guys. He’s in my X feed and I’ll watch his YouTube every now and then. He came on my radar with the Key Bridge fiasco, he is *very* knowledgable about shipping/logistics. As a bonus, he also does some history podcasts as a guest with some WWII history guys I watch/listen to (Unauthorized History of the Pacific War).
It’s not only GPS turned off, it’s also cell phones, lots of other stuff. EMCOM is a thing.
This is not a sustainable plan.
It’s great that the gas prices are coming down a few dimes or quarters per gallon before the election but this can’t be an ongoing strategy.
$25k? That’s really cheap.................
your opinion smells like ass ...
the ships need to be completely automated.
There was an experiment recently with a fully automated ship making a trans-Atlantic crossing. Haven’t heard how it turned-out.
There was an experiment recently with a fully automated ship making a trans-Atlantic crossing. Haven’t heard how it turned-out.
“How could anyone turn that down.”
I’ll bite,
I have a $500K offer for gold mining as a geologist in the DRC right in the heart of the province where the Ebola outbreak is raging you want the info they are desperate for geos or anyone else who can correctly ident placer deposits.
It’s a 4 month hitch with 21 days mandatory quarantine in Kenya or another third party country one the way out so 7 total months you down bro?
I have done this hitch before Ebola hit this time I was boots down in a scare in 2013 so we left early.
It’s two wide bodies DFW or JFK to Charles de Gaulle and on to N’djili from there it’s turboprop have flown in an Antonov to Doko and a MI8 if you are with a large group of orange hats vs the long slow 6*6 truck with white hats.
So yeah with danger comes pay you down?
Fresh data on Monday showed the payouts are working,“
The little rat at the NYP was crying when they wrote that part.
Who’s paying that amount? I would assume that’s adding to the price of the oil.
Sal Mercogliano’s latest post was just in time for this thread:
“What*The*Hormuz: No Lights, No Radio: Inside a Supertanker’s Hormuz Run”
(Rundown on current situation, then Sal sort of forwards the account of a Filipino capt. as related to Bloomberg. Quite the risk-reward scenario... Interestingly, the US apparently is not putting missile defense destroyers in the Strait to escort these passages, but is providing, essentially, air cover.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe28xMJxfZA
I suspect the threat environment is too risky for an AB destroyer, or too costly in missiles, which is sort of the same thing.
“ This is not a sustainable plan.”
Maybe not for you. For the oil companies it’s pocket change.
L
So a 50 day supertanker rental in January was $2 million and now its $60 million.
it cost more than $1.2 million per day to hire an oil supertanker to China – up from $231,400 the day before the war, and less than $40,000 a day in January...
A full round-trip or total cycle generally spans 45 to 50 days when factoring in loading, transit, and discharging in China
This is different, it is a normal, routine sailor job doing what they always do, except there is a slight chance of attack on the ship while in that strait for what, hours, a day or two?
Your offer is for a very long period of time in uncomfortable living as a civilian for money you personally don’t need, the kind of thing that we would do for regular pay as GIs when they get sent to Ebola areas or as American sailors and GIs right now working for regular pay in the Strait.
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