An agreement over the Strait of Hormuz is still far away. Tim Wilkins, who works for a tanker industry group, says the ships stuck around the waterway are in limbo, and transiting is still dangerous.<\/p>\n
Coming up this hour, join me as I learn about how a food delivery man in China has become a celebrated poet. And I talked to a sailor who is solo piloting his way around massive chunks of ice through the Russian Arctic.<\/p>\n
But first, we will hear from an expert overseeing a different kind of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz because today, the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council issued a list of demands that it says the U.S. needs to meet before the Strait of Hormuz can open. But this week, U.S. officials had said that talks were progressing to let the ships pass safely through the waterway. Meanwhile, hundreds of ships remain in limbo.<\/p>\n
Tim Wilkins knows many of these ships and their owners and is following the situation in the strait. He's managing director of an industry group, Intertanko, which represents oil, chemical and gas tankers. Welcome.<\/p>\n
TIM WILKINS: Thanks very much, Rob. Nice to meet you.<\/p>\n
SCHMITZ: So what is it like right now for a tanker moving through the Strait of Hormuz?<\/p>\n
WILKINS: The situation right now in the Strait of Hormuz remains severe. We are still having vessels being targeted by drones and by missiles, and the number of tankers transiting through the Strait is massively reduced compared to what it was pre-conflict. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week, U.S. facilitated transits of about 11, 13, and then 15 were planned last night, so we assume that these have been successful.<\/p>\n
SCHMITZ: You said that some of them have been targeted. Tell me a little bit more about that.<\/p>\n
WILKINS: In the last 7 to 10 days, we've had a host of targeted vessels that have been transiting through there – either missiles or drones. Bearing in mind now, these vessels with seafarers on board, they're transiting. They've been given approval to transit through certain routes, so it's often unexpected and unplanned when these vessels have been attacked.<\/p>\n
WILKINS: The damage was pretty significant. In particular, we had quite a severe situation last week where we had a gas tanker which was hit and did -unfortunately, had to be evacuated. A fire did break out. This was one of the U.S.-facilitated transits that this gas carrier was being sort of transited through by night. So, you know, even with the U.S. facilitated, there are still risks, and it doesn't eliminate that risk of an attack.<\/p>\n
SCHMITZ: What kind of presence does the U.S. military have in that type of scenario when a tanker is hit?<\/p>\n
WILKINS: So U.S.-facilitated effectively means that those vessels have reported to the U.S. naval assets that are in the region. You might recall that the U.S. has a blockade in the southern part of the Strait of Hormuz at the moment, so there are U.S. Naval assets in that region.<\/p>\n
And what's happening is those vessels are contacting the U.S. They're transiting through what we call the southern or the Oman route. And those transits are being tracked basically by those assets. What we're being told is that those sort of naval assets are ready to intercept, and they have planes ready. But to all intents and purposes, those vessels are basically transiting and being monitored. That's basically the term of a U.S.-facilitated transit.<\/p>\n
SCHMITZ: Understood. So we don't – it's not like a U.S. vessel is actually guiding a tanker through this area?<\/p>\n
WILKINS: Not at all. And it's not as if you're going to have fighter jets overhead and naval vessels alongside or anything like that. Not at all. Yeah. It's very much a monitoring type of situation.<\/p>\n