Sailors Are Reportedly Being Offered $25,000 For Gulf Oil Runs as Hormuz Strait Continues to be a Battle Zone

Some sailors are being offered as much as $25,000 for individual trips through the Strait of Hormuz as oil producers try to keep crude moving out of the Persian Gulf despite continuing attacks on commercial shipping, according to a new report.

The unusually large payments are being offered to crew members willing to make dangerous tanker voyages through the waterway, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Journal reported that a ship staffing company in China's Shandong province was offering up to $25,000 for a round trip, citing seafarers and recruitment advertisements it reviewed.

The payments can amount to two or three times a sailor's normal monthly salary, with workers from India, the Philippines and China among those being recruited for the voyages, the Journal reported.

Oil producers have increasingly relied on very large crude carriers, or VLCCs, to conduct what the Journal described as "shuttle runs." The vessels enter the Persian Gulf through Hormuz, load oil at ports inside the Gulf and travel back through the strait before transferring their cargo to another vessel waiting outside the waterway.

The trips have become extraordinarily expensive. The Journal reported that some shuttle voyages can cost as much as $40 million as shipowners demand higher rates to compensate for the risks of entering the region.

Hiring a supertanker for a Persian Gulf-to-China voyage topped $1.2 million a day in late September, compared with about $231,400 a day before the conflict and less than $40,000 in early January, according to Clarksons Research data cited by the Journal.

The higher costs come as commercial vessels continue to face attacks and threats around Hormuz.

On Monday, a tanker traveling inbound through the strait was hailed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and ordered to turn around or face being targeted, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations. The vessel's master complied with the instruction.

A day earlier, another tanker in the Strait of Hormuz was struck by an unknown projectile that damaged its engine room. Two tanker attacks were reported on Oct. 2, including one involving a crude carrier struck on its port side and another vessel that suffered a small fire and blackout after being hit during an outbound transit. No casualties were reported in those incidents, according to UKMTO.

The International Maritime Organization had confirmed 93 shipping incidents in and around the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Middle East as of Oct. 5.

IMO said in September that at least 22 seafarers had been killed in attacks on international shipping since the Middle East conflict began on Feb. 28. The agency has repeatedly urged shipowners and operators to avoid exposing crews to unnecessary danger when safe passage cannot be assured.

The security crisis has dramatically altered oil flows through Hormuz, a critical route for crude and fuel exports from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf producers.

Oil and petroleum-product flows through the strait averaged 21.6 million barrels a day in the fourth quarter of 2025 before falling to 14.9 million barrels a day in the first quarter of 2026 and just 4.9 million barrels a day in the second quarter, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Crude oil and condensate flows alone dropped from 15.9 million barrels a day in the final quarter of last year to 3.7 million barrels a day in the second quarter of 2026. Liquefied natural gas traffic also fell sharply over the same period.

Traffic began recovering after a June agreement led to increased passage through the strait, but renewed military strikes in July again pushed up crude prices and increased uncertainty around Middle Eastern supplies. The EIA said Brent crude futures moved above $100 a barrel in late July before trading largely between $79 and $98 through early September.

The agency said in its September outlook that flows through Hormuz were gradually increasing, along with the use of alternative export routes, but it expected shipping constraints to continue through the fourth quarter.

The International Energy Agency said a growing number of tankers have been crossing Middle Eastern chokepoints with their automatic identification system transponders switched off. GPS jamming and AIS spoofing have also been widely reported, meaning available tracking data may understate the amount of traffic moving through the region.

The Journal reported that the high freight rates have encouraged more shipowners to participate in the shuttle trade despite those dangers, while Gulf producers have accepted higher transportation costs to avoid leaving crude stranded inside the region.

For the crews making those trips, the financial rewards are being weighed against a security environment that remains unusually hazardous. On Aug. 28, the IMO said thousands of seafarers continued to work under heightened risk and uncertainty, with as many as 400 ships carrying roughly 6,000 crew members having been unable to leave the Persian Gulf safely at some point since the conflict began.