أرامكو ولويدز لندن تواجهان تحديات إغلاق مضيق هرمز والبحر الأحمر

There is a price for everything: even the cost of insuring a ship travelling through the strait of Hormuz. Donald Trump’s proposals for the US to provide political risk insurance for seaborne trade in the Gulf may have given the impression a lack of cover was the reason why traffic through the key waterway has almost halted. However, Lloyd’s of London, the heart of maritime insurance globally, emphasises it has not stopped providing contracts to those who ask – although at the right tariff. Fending off criticism over cancelled policies and sharp price rises, Lloyd’s said it still provided insurance cover for hull and cargo for vessels in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, including in the strait of Hormuz. However, last week it extended the restricted areas where clients needed to notify insurers to agree an appropriate premium in terms of the risk. About 500 oil and gas tankers, 500 container ships and six cruise ships have been trapped either side of the Hormuz channel since Iran made it a no-go zone by threatening to attack any vessel passing through. Just 66 ships have made it through since the war started. In normal times, roughly a fifth of global oil supplies and seaborne gas shipments use the route. According to the broker Marsh, insurance rates for physical war damage to a vessel have risen to between 1% and 1.5% of the ship’s insured value – up from 0.25% before the Iran conflict began. With oil tankers valued at between $17m and $100m last year, depending on size and age, this would mean shipping companies paying up to hundreds of thousands of dollars more per voyage. Analysts at Jefferies said: “It’s our base case that all ships currently in the Gulf will have had their policies cancelled, and almost all of these will have reinstated it at the new (much higher) price.” They added: “It seems likely to us that the war risk insurers will have had the opportunity to specifically exclude (or separately charge for) certain actions, such as sailing through the strait of Hormuz.” On Friday, the US government announced a $20bn reinsurance facility for hull and cargo cover (but excluding pollution cover when ships are sunk), and said it was working with US insurers. Analysts have cast doubt on the effectiveness of the facility. The UK chancellor, Rachel Reeves, told MPs on Wednesday she was working with Lloyd’s, the US administration and other key allies “trying to reopen the strait of Hormuz and making sure that vessels feel confident to travel through it, and that insurance products are available at right prices”. She added: “At the moment, the issue is not so much insurance products, but the safety of captains and crews of those vessels.” The Lloyd’s chair, Sir Charles Roxburgh, who met Reeves on Monday, echoed those comments. He added: “In my meeting with the chancellor, I reiterated Lloyd’s confidence in our marine insurance market, which has remained open and continues to support international trade and shipping during this period of heightened risk.” He said Lloyd’s and the market continued to work with key UK, US and international partners to ensure a “comprehensive response to the situation”. The insurance market, which traces its roots back to a London coffee house in 1688 owned by Edward Lloyd, where sailors, merchants, and shipowners met to secure marine insurance and exchange gossip, has sought to defend its decisions to cancel war risk policies in the Middle East and increase prices. Neil Roberts, head of marine and aviation at the Lloyd’s Market Association, which represents 59 Lloyd’s managing agents and members’ agents, said: “War insurance is provided by a dynamic market and new rates can be negotiated to reflect the changed risk profile in a three-way discussion between underwriters, insureds and their brokers. “The current Gulf conflict is seeing market participants adjust from a relatively peaceful norm, to one where there are multiple strikes on vessels.”

<a href="https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMirAFBVV95cUxNSDdyS1NNbTBkN1hkd2lDWVZPbXBaUW9rUENnSlNlNVdkcTkxZXVLTnpDNThmWmJLVzA2SXVjZFBwQUE2eGVBRU1mOXFVcWlJVW9NSmZmSnZiT2hmVUVsRV9yVGg1SG5ERzlkY0RYd29KY3pPWE9DZlZkT1I2UlR3cVVIcnYyU2JNd0dmdVRINVhmZDd4REpscTZkak1wQUYwTG4ySzNraTRES0lo?oc=5" target="_blank">Iran war has blocked the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil choke point. Reopening it is a big challenge</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<font color="#6f6f6f">Stamford Advocate</font>

Saudi Arabia’s oil giant Aramco is requesting from Asian buyers to nominate crude loading plans for April for both its key export port in the Gulf and the export alternative on the Red Sea, multiple sources told Reuters on Wednesday. The crisis at the Strait of Hormuz has reverberated through global markets. With the Strait effectively blocked for tanker traffic, Saudi Arabia has diverted part of its crude oil exports from the Ras Tanura export terminal in the Gulf that needs free-flowing traffic through Hormuz to the Yanbu export port on the Red Sea. The loading option at Yanbu applies only to the purchase of Arab Light, Saudi Arabia’s flagship crude grade, according to Reuters’ sources. Saudi Arabia can replace a small portion of the lost export option at the Ras Tanura port with loadings from Yanbu, which bypass the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Aramco uses the East-West pipeline which on paper has the capacity to move about 7 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude towards the Red Sea. But there’s the question about how much can the terminals at Yanbu load, with some estimates putting this capacity at around 3 million bpd, Vortexa said last week. Related: Little-Known US Company Lands Important Pentagon Contract in Rare Earth Race Between March 1 and 9, immediately after the Strait of Hormuz was effectively shut for tanker traffic, loadings at Yanbu averaged 2.2 million bpd, doubled compared to the February average, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters. From the Strait of Hormuz, Aramco shipped some 6 million bpd before the blockage. Yanbu on the Red Sea cannot offset all the lost shipments via the Strait of Hormuz. That’s why Saudi Arabia and the other top Gulf oil producers have slashed crude oil production in recent days as storage capacity fills up and the crude doesn’t have a way out of the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia has slashed its oil production by between 2 million bpd and 2.5 million bpd, anonymous sources familiar with the situation told Bloomberg on Tuesday. By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com