Escape from Hormuz: the oil tankers running the Iranian gauntlet

Escape from Hormuz: the oil tankers running the Iranian gauntlet on x (opens in a new window)Escape from Hormuz: the oil tankers running the Iranian gauntlet on facebook (opens in a new window)Escape from Hormuz: the oil tankers running the Iranian gauntlet on linkedin (opens in a new window)Escape from Hormuz: the oil tankers running the Iranian gauntlet on whatsapp (opens in a new window) Save Escape from Hormuz: the oil tankers running the Iranian gauntlet on x (opens in a new window)Escape from Hormuz: the oil tankers running the Iranian gauntlet on facebook (opens in a new window)Escape from Hormuz: the oil tankers running the Iranian gauntlet on linkedin (opens in a new window)Escape from Hormuz: the oil tankers running the Iranian gauntlet on whatsapp (opens in a new window) Save Leslie Hook, Verity Ratcliffe and Malcolm Moore in Lausanne and Alice Hancock in LondonPublishedApril 23 2026Jump to comments sectionPrint this pageUnlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.It was dark when the Akti A, a small oil tanker carrying 300,000 barrels of diesel, made its escape through the Strait of Hormuz.In the early hours of Saturday morning, just after Iran briefly appeared to declare the narrow waterway “completely open”, the Akti A lined up at the head of a snake of ships desperate to get out of the Gulf. Operated by Danish shipping line Maersk, but carrying fuel for commodity trader Vitol, the Akti A had been sitting fully loaded near Bahrain for weeks as other ships were struck by Iranian drones and missiles around it. Its timing was lucky. Shortly after it ran the gauntlet, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sent gunboats into the channel. The Akti A, today sailing towards the Cape of Good Hope, had just made it through. For the world’s largest energy traders, the problem of how to rescue their tankers that are stranded in the Gulf is one of the thorniest problems of the war – a...