The world's most expensive toll road runs through water
A month into the war, Iran has turned the Strait of Hormuz into something nobody predicted: a revenue stream.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps runs a controlled shipping corridor between Qeshm and Larak islands, tight against the Iranian coastline. Vessels that want through must hand over cargo manifests, crew lists, and destination details to IRGC-connected intermediaries. Approved ships get a clearance code, an escort boat, and a VHF radio check from an IRGC commander while in transit.
Some pay $2 million per crossing. The fee is settled in Chinese yuan.
Who gets in, who doesn't
Iran has split the world into two camps. Ships tied to China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Iraq, and Bangladesh can transit, some for free, others at a price. Indian cooking-gas tankers passed without charge, a diplomatic gesture. Vessels from Malaysia, Egypt, and South Korea have also crossed.
Everyone else waits. Nearly 2,000 ships sat stranded outside the strait by late March, according to Al Jazeera. Lloyd's List data tells the fuller story: 142 transits through Hormuz between March 1 and 25, compared with 2,652 in the same window last year. That is a 95% collapse in traffic through a chokepoint that normally handles 20% of the world's oil and LNG.
Iran's initial safe-passage offer hinted at this system when it surfaced in late March. What has changed since is the scale and the permanence.
Parliament made it law
Iran's parliament voted to formalize the tolls, framing the legislation as recognition of Tehran's "sovereignty, dominance and supervision" over the waterway. The bill puts legal scaffolding around what the IRGC had been running on an ad hoc basis since mid-March.
The revenue math is hard to ignore. At $2 million per tanker, oil traffic alone could generate roughly $20 million a day. Add LNG carriers and other commercial vessels, and CNN estimated the regime could pull in $600 million to $800 million a month. That is real money for a country under heavy sanctions and at war.
Iranian lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi was blunt: "War has costs. Naturally, we must take transit fees from ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz."
The legal fight nobody can enforce
The Gulf Cooperation Council called the tolls illegal, citing the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. UNCLOS guarantees transit passage through international straits, meaning ships can cross without paying fees or asking permission.
Tehran's answer is simple: Iran signed UNCLOS in 1982 but never ratified it. Officials say the treaty's transit rules do not bind them.
Maritime law scholars push back. "There is no legal basis under international law for a coastal state to charge fees in an international strait," a professor of international maritime law told Argus Media. ADNOC chief executive Sultan al-Jaber went further, calling the restrictions "economic terrorism."
But legal arguments do not clear shipping lanes. With the US Navy focused on strike operations rather than escort duty, nobody is enforcing freedom of navigation through the IRGC's checkpoint.
What it means for prices
Brent crude traded at $101.15 per barrel on Tuesday, down $2.82 on the session. WTI slipped to $98.78. The pullback reflects bets that Trump's April 6 deadline for Iran to reopen the strait could deliver results.
The toll system complicates that bet. Iran now has a financial reason to keep the strait restricted. Each week of tolled passage means hundreds of millions in revenue plus the geopolitical leverage that comes with controlling who gets oil and who doesn't.
Houthi threats to close the Bab el-Mandeb strait pile on another layer of risk. If both chokepoints tighten, roughly 30% of seaborne oil trade sits in the crossfire.
For now, the toll booth stays open, on Iran's terms.