International shipping firms are offering crews large bonuses to transit the Strait of Hormuz despite the risks involved, Bloomberg reported Monday.
Sinokor Group, the world's largest owner of supertankers, offered its crews six months of extra salary to make a return voyage collecting oil from Saudi Arabia or Iraq and unloading it in the Gulf of Oman, a trip the company said would take around a month, according to a document seen by Bloomberg.
Iranian military speedboats, illustrative file imageCaptain Pradeep Chawla, chairman of GlobalMET, a seafarer training organization that partners with the International Maritime Organization (IMO), said crews are "being offered huge bonuses by some companies," without referring to the Sinokor offer directly.
He added that "We have heard stories of a large number of crew members getting off, but they are able to find people who are willing to go."
Since the start of the US war on Iran, at least 59 commercial ships have come under attack in and around the Persian Gulf, with 17 seafarers killed, according to the UN's shipping agency.
The cost of shipping has surged since attacks on commercial vessels drove traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to near collapse.
The heightened
