WASHINGTON, July 13 — A 20 percent toll on oil tanker traffic in the Persian Gulf would represent an unprecedented peacetime levy on commercial shipping, according to a review of U.S. naval operations in the region. The record shows that the United States has long maintained a military presence in the Gulf to protect oil shipping. Operation Earnest Will, conducted from 1987 to 1988, saw U.S. Navy warships escort Kuwaiti oil tankers that had been reflagged under the American flag during the Iran-Iraq War’s Tanker War.
That operation involved over 50 U.S. warships. On the timeline, the operation included a significant casualty event.
The USS Stark was hit by an Iraqi missile in 1987, killing 37 sailors. More recently, from 2019 to 2020, the United States led the International Maritime Security Construct after a series of attacks on tankers off Fujairah and the Abqaiq-Khurais attacks. Sources familiar with the administration’s thinking note that the 20 percent toll is without parallel in peacetime.
The United States has imposed port fees and tariffs in other contexts, but not a percentage-based levy on transiting tankers. The U.S. also imposed sanctions on Iranian oil exports in 2018 after withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Those sanctions reduced Iran’s exports from 2.5 million barrels per day to under 500,000 barrels per day. The toll is designed to offset the cost of U.S. naval patrols and escort operations. The Pentagon has long argued that the free passage of oil benefits global markets, and that the U.S. taxpayer should not bear the full burden of securing that passage.
The administration has not yet specified how the toll would be enforced, or what penalties would apply to tanker operators who refuse to pay. The filing leaves those details to be worked out in subsequent regulations. The toll proposal is likely to face legal challenges from shipping companies and oil-exporting nations.
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea guarantees innocent passage through international straits, and a unilateral levy could be seen as a violation of that principle. The administration has not yet set a date for implementation, but the filing indicates that the toll could take effect within 90 days of the final rule being published in the Federal Register.
What remains to be seen is how the toll would affect global oil prices, and whether the U.S. Navy has the capacity to collect the levy without disrupting the flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
