Insurers raise war-risk premiums for Gulf shipping for the third time this year

Marine insurers have lifted war-risk premiums for vessels calling at Gulf ports by another fifteen percent, brokers said on Tuesday, citing the latest incidents near Bandar Abbas and the absence of progress in Muscat.

For a very large crude carrier the additional premium now runs to roughly $500,000 per voyage, a cost that is passed almost entirely to buyers of crude in Asia and Europe.

Refiners in India and South Korea have responded by lifting more cargoes from West Africa and the United States, a shift that traders say is likely to persist even if the talks succeed.