Strait of Hormuz reopening delayed in International Shipping News 24/04/2026 The latest joke about the Strait of Hormuz is that it is Schrödinger’s waterway: it is simultaneously open and closed, until you try to sail through it and find out for certain which it is. Over the weekend, several vessels put that question to the test and were given their answer: the strait is still mostly closed. Despite recent encouraging signs of a possible end to the conflict in the Middle East, the US and Iran remain some distance apart on terms for a lasting peace agreement. The threat of prolonged disruption to energy and chemicals exports from the Gulf has grown. Hopes of an end to the war had been rising. The US, Israel and Iran announced a two-week ceasefire on 7 April, followed last week by a 10-day pause in the fighting in Lebanon. However, over the weekend two Indian ships – a tanker and a bulk carrier – were forced to turn back after coming under fire from Iranian forces while attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) issued a statement on Saturday warning vessels not to move in the Persian Gulf or the Sea of Oman. “Approaching the Strait of Hormuz will be considered co-operation with the enemy, and the offending vessel will be targeted,” it said. After the ceasefire announcements two weeks ago, there had been a small upturn in the number of vessels passing through the strait. Last week about 20 vessels transited each day, according to Wood Mackenzie’s VesselTracker service: more than before the ceasefire, but still well short of the 170 or so a day that passed through in February. Now even that small step towards reopening seems to have been reversed. Although a few vessels passed through on Saturday, there was very little movement on Sunday. The result for oil, gas and chemicals markets is that the disruption caused by the conflict is not over, and could still get worse. Oil futures prices have been reflecting hopes that the strait could be reopened soon. When the ceasefire was first announced on 7 April, the June contract for Brent crude dropped about 14%, from around US$110 a barrel to below US$95 a barrel. At one point last Friday it went down to just over US$86 a barrel. But when the market re-opened in Asia on Monday morning, prices rebounded again. At the time of writing, the June contract for Brent is trading at about US$95 a barrel, up 5% from its close on Friday. European gas prices also rose sharply on Monday. Benchmark TTF futures for June hit €61.5 per megawatt hour, roughly equivalent to US$21 per million British thermal units, although they later fell back to around €40 per megawatt hour. The efforts to reach a peace agreement are continuing. Vice President JD Vance is leading a US delegation to Islamabad, Pakistan, for another round of talks. Iran’s leaders were initially noncommittal about whether they would take part, but by Monday were reported to have agreed to resume negotiations. However, the rhetoric from both sides became more confrontational over the weekend. President Donald Trump told Fox News on Sunday that if Iran did not sign a peace deal with the US, “the whole country is getting blown up”. He added that Iran’s bridges and power plants would be targeted. The US has been tightening its blockade of Iran-linked vessels in the Gulf of Oman, outside the Strait of Hormuz. On Sunday, the US Navy fired on and seized a cargo ship that had been attempting to reach Iran.