Oil tanker rates hit $254,000 a day as Strait of Hormuz attacks reach a record

Oil tanker freight rates on the Middle East Gulf to Far East route have climbed to about $254,050 a day, Topline Securities said citing Bloomberg data, ProPakistani reported on 24 October 2026. Shipbroker Galbraith's time-charter-equivalent figures for an 80,000-tonne Aframax tanker showed a peak of about $280,000 a day.

Key facts

• Rate now: about $254,050 a day (Topline, citing Bloomberg)
• Peak: about $280,000 a day for an Aframax (Galbraith)
• 2022 to 2025 range: $20,000 to $50,000 a day
• October attacks near Hormuz: 28, a monthly record

How big the jump is

From 2022 to 2025, the same voyage mostly cost $20,000 to $50,000 a day. At $254,000, a tanker now costs roughly 5 to 13 times as much to hire as in that period. In rupees, at the interbank rate on our dollar page (about Rs 276.8), one day of hire is around Rs 7 crore.

Why

Attacks on merchant ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz have intensified. Reuters reported on 23 October that there were 28 confirmed and reported attacks in the strait and nearby waters in October, the worst month on record according to data from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

What it means for Pakistan

Pakistan imports most of its crude oil, petrol, diesel and LNG from the Gulf, so higher freight feeds into the landed cost of every cargo. That cost reaches pumps through the import parity price behind each fuel price notification.

• Fuel prices: diesel went up Rs 1.91 a litre on 23 October while petrol stayed at Rs 377.71, Dawn reported. PSO's ex-depot Karachi prices are tracked daily on our petrol price and diesel price pages.
• Supply worries: petrol dealers this week urged people not to panic-buy (see our story on shortage fears).
• Markets: the KSE-100 fell 1,549 points on 23 October as Brent hit a five-month high (PSX report).

To see what higher prices do to your monthly fuel bill, try our fuel cost calculator.