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Hormuz Stranglehold Pushes Maersk’s Fuel Bill to $500m Monthly as Thousands of Seafarers Languish in Persian Gulf Limbo
Hormuz Stranglehold Pushes Maersk’s Fuel Bill to $500m Monthly as Thousands of Seafarers Languish in Persian Gulf Limbo
By Oghenewoke Osaweren | Waterwaysnews.ng Maritime Desk | Sunday, May 10, 2026
The relentless chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz is drawing blood from the world’s shipping industry with alarming velocity, as Danish container giant A.P. Møller-Maersk confirmed this week that the Iran-triggered maritime blockade has inflated its monthly fuel expenditure by nearly half a billion dollars — a burden the company is now offloading directly onto global shippers and cargo owners.
Speaking during Maersk’s first-quarter 2026 earnings presentation on Thursday, Chief Executive Officer Vincent Clerc laid bare the brutal arithmetic of the crisis. The Iran war has pushed the company’s fuel costs up by nearly $500 million a month, equivalent to roughly 3 billion Danish crowns, as bunker fuel prices surged from around $600 to just under $1,000 per metric ton. To cushion the blow on its own balance sheet, Maersk has implemented a temporary non-refundable Emergency Bunker Surcharge, effective globally from March 25, 2026, citing the current situation as having “significantly impacted access to fuel, its availability at key locations, with the right specifications and at a price point Maersk can absorb.”
In plain terms: global trade is footing the bill.
THE HORMUZ CRISIS: TWO MONTHS AND COUNTING
The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed since late February, with more than 800 ships and approximately 20,000 crew members stranded west of the narrow waterway. What began as a geopolitical flashpoint has hardened into one of the most disruptive maritime emergencies of the modern era, paralyzing a corridor through which approximately 20 per cent of global oil supply ordinarily passes.
Cargoes delayed in the region include crude oil, refined products and fertiliser, while thousands of seafarers remain aboard ships unable to move freely. According to US military estimates, more than 1,550 vessels carrying around 22,500 mariners are inside the Persian Gulf.
The human dimension of this crisis is one that rarely commands the same attention as the financial headlines. For those mariners — many of them Filipinos, Indians, Ukrainians, and Nigerians — the days have turned into weeks, and weeks into months, with no clear horizon for departure.
MAERSK’S FINANCIAL WOUNDS
Maersk’s Q1 2026 results offered little comfort to shareholders. Net profit for January to March plummeted to $100 million, approximately twelve times lower than the same period a year earlier, when earnings were supercharged by exceptionally strong sea freight demand. Revenue slipped 2.6 per cent to just under $13 billion, while earnings per share collapsed to $4, compared to $74 in Q1 2025.
Maersk’s CEO described the situation as “unprecedented, both in terms of size and the speed at which it has unfolded,” while noting that the full financial hit would emerge from the second quarter, when higher fuel costs flow fully through the company’s accounts.
The cost surge goes beyond rising crude prices. Maersk pointed to tightening bunker availability, regional price dislocations and the need to reposition fuel across its network, noting it had been “redistributing available fuel from North America and Europe” to keep vessels supplied across Asia and the Middle East.
Despite the bloodbath, Maersk maintained its full-year guidance. The company continues to guide for an underlying EBITDA of $4.5 billion to $7 billion and free cash flow of negative $3 billion or better, though it acknowledged experiencing higher working capital because of higher bunker costs, which is absorbing additional cash.
PEACE WON’T IMMEDIATELY FIX THE CRISIS
One of the starkest warnings from Maersk’s earnings call is that even a diplomatic resolution to the Iran conflict would not quickly unwind the maritime and energy damage already done. Even if a peace deal were reached tomorrow, Clerc said the impact on cargo flows would be limited in the near term. Fuel costs will not normalize the day the strait reopens, because the oil market will take time to rebalance and operators will remain cautious about routing vessels through the area until safety is genuinely established.
“The energy crisis does not go away the day peace comes,” Clerc stated, offering a sobering prognosis for an industry already battered by years of Red Sea disruption.
The CEO also raised a wider macroeconomic alarm, describing a scenario of high costs, weak demand and overcapacity as “a dangerous cocktail.”
RED SEA RETURN SHELVED INDEFINITELY
The Hormuz crisis has also dealt a fatal blow to Maersk’s carefully laid plans to gradually resume operations through the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The Middle East situation is forcing Maersk to continue rerouting vessels around Africa, away from the Suez Canal, marking an abrupt stop to the company’s tentative efforts for a gradual return of some services to the Suez route — a key step towards ending years of global trade disruption caused by Houthi rebel attacks in the Red Sea.
Clerc confirmed that Maersk reversed and halted its anticipated gradual return to the Red Sea for safety reasons, noting that the one limiting factor was the limited availability of escort ships or monitoring assets from either the US Navy or any European naval force.
HAPAG-LLOYD ALSO BLEEDING
Maersk is not alone in counting the costs. German shipping group Hapag-Lloyd disclosed that the disruption around Hormuz is costing it approximately $60 million a week, driven largely by higher fuel and insurance bills. Insurance premiums for ships operating in the region have also surged sharply because of the threat of attack, adding to pressure on operators already facing rising fuel costs.
Industry analysts warn that even a swift resolution would not rapidly normalise markets. Refiners, shippers and commodity traders would remain cautious until genuine safety was established , according to risk analysts.
SELECTIVE PASSAGE: WHO GETS THROUGH
Iran has not applied the blockade universally. On March 26, the Iranian Foreign Minister announced that ships owned by five nations — China, Russia, India, Iraq and Pakistan — would be allowed to transit the Strait. Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines subsequently secured passage rights following diplomatic talks with Tehran. Western-flagged and Western-linked vessels have received no such exemptions.
A US-led military initiative to escort commercial ships through the strait was briefly activated, with one Maersk-owned vehicle carrier successfully guided through — but that initiative was paused within days.
IMPLICATIONS FOR AFRICA AND NIGERIA
For West Africa, and Nigeria in particular, the knock-on effects of the Hormuz crisis are already rippling through import costs, cargo delays and freight rates. Nigeria, which relies heavily on imported fuel products, refined goods, and manufactured cargo via container shipping, faces heightened exposure as the world’s major carriers impose multiple layers of emergency surcharges on every shipment.
Nigerian importers and exporters should brace for further rate escalations as the second quarter absorbs the full weight of Maersk’s surcharge regime — a financial storm that originated in a distant strait but is fast becoming a local economic headache.
Waterwaysnews.ng continues to monitor developments in the Strait of Hormuz and will provide updates on the implications for Nigeria’s maritime trade and port operations.
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NCS Boss Champions Digital Trade, Regional Customs Unity at WCO Freetown Summit
By Ighoyota Onaibre | Waterways News Correspondent
Nigeria Customs Service Comptroller-General Bashir Adewale Adeniyi has used the platform of the 32nd Conference of Directors General of Customs in Freetown, Sierra Leone, to press for accelerated digital trade reforms and deeper cooperation among West and Central African Customs administrations, warning that the region’s economic integration agenda faces serious threats from illicit trade and fragmented border management.
Adeniyi, who represented Nigeria’s interests at the two-day summit convened under the World Customs Organization (WCO) framework, told delegates that Nigeria’s engagement within the regional body was animated by a commitment to collective progress rather than the narrow pursuit of national advantage. He praised the region’s tradition of rotating leadership among member states irrespective of their size or economic weight, describing it as a model worthy of emulation.
Summit Theme and Key Agenda
The conference, held under the theme “A Customs Service that Protects Society Through its Vigilance and Commitment,” placed digital transformation, intelligence-driven border management and harmonised Customs operations at the centre of its deliberations.
Delegates reached broad agreement on the need for coordinated roll-out of Single Window platforms across the region, stronger transit verification through the ECOWAS SIGMAT framework, and more robust data-sharing arrangements to plug revenue leakages and disrupt smuggling and transnational criminal networks exploiting trade corridors.
Adeniyi separately commended the WCO leadership for sustaining an inclusive modernisation agenda that keeps African Customs administrations meaningfully engaged in shaping global trade standards.
Sierra Leone’s Modernisation Blueprint
Sierra Leone’s hosting of the summit coincided with an announcement of its own Customs transformation roadmap. The country unveiled plans to upgrade its ASYCUDA World system, deploy a Single Window Customs and Ports Community System, and introduce product-tracing solutions for excisable goods — steps that align with the broader regional push for interoperable trade infrastructure.
The conference was formally opened by Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio, who called on regional governments to deepen cooperation on trade facilitation, border security and economic integration as foundational pillars of sustainable growth.
AfCFTA Opportunities, Security Imperatives
Participants acknowledged that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) offers the region significant commercial opportunities but cautioned that its full potential can only be realised if modern Customs systems and effective border controls keep criminal actors from exploiting the expanded trade corridors that accompany liberalisation.
The summit closed with the election of the Central African Republic as the new Vice-Chair of the WCO West and Central Africa Region, succeeding Mali at the conclusion of a two-year tenure.
Nigeria Watch
For Nigeria’s ports and maritime trade ecosystem, the Freetown summit carries direct operational significance. The NCS has been actively rolling out the Nigeria National Single Window — a platform whose value depends heavily on whether neighbouring Customs administrations adopt comparable systems. Without regional interoperability, goods moving through West African corridors remain vulnerable to mis-declaration, valuation fraud and diversion at transit points beyond Nigeria’s jurisdiction.
Adeniyi’s advocacy for the ECOWAS SIGMAT transit verification framework is particularly noteworthy. Nigeria’s major ports — Apapa and Tin Can Island — serve as entry points for cargo destined for landlocked neighbours including Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali. Strengthening transit Customs controls is therefore not merely a regional solidarity gesture; it is a direct revenue protection measure for the NCS and a trade facilitation imperative for Nigerian port operators.
The AfCFTA dimension also bears watching. As tariff barriers fall, the premium on Customs intelligence, risk profiling and cross-border data sharing will only rise. Nigeria’s positioning within the WCO regional structure gives it leverage to shape those frameworks — leverage that must be converted into binding protocols if the country’s ports are to remain competitive gateways into West Africa.
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Onigbinde Assumes MARAN Presidency, Vows to Rebuild Association, Raise Bar for Maritime Journalism
Onigbinde Assumes MARAN Presidency, Vows to Rebuild Association, Raise Bar for Maritime Journalism
By Okeoghene Onoriobe | Waterways News Correspondent
Newly-elected President of the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN), Mr. Oluyinka Onigbinde, has outlined a reform-driven agenda anchored on institutional rebuilding, ethical journalism, member welfare, and deeper engagement with maritime industry stakeholders.
Onigbinde, Assistant Editor of Shipping Position Daily, emerged as the 15th president of MARAN following a keenly contested election held at the association’s elective congress in Apapa, Lagos last week Thursday. He defeated veteran maritime journalist Reverend John Iwori in a poll conducted under the supervision of the Lagos State Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ).
Speaking during an interactive session on Radio Nigeria shortly after his victory, Onigbinde described his emergence as a collective win for the association rather than a personal triumph, and stressed that the road ahead would demand unity, sacrifice, and accountability from all members.
“Leadership is not about age; it is about responsibility, maturity, and the ability to carry the hopes and expectations of the people,” he said, in what appeared to be a direct response to commentary about him being among the youngest presidents in the association’s history.
Reforms and Professionalism
At the heart of Onigbinde’s agenda is a commitment to institutional reform aimed at strengthening professionalism among maritime beat reporters and restoring MARAN’s relevance as a credible voice in industry and policy circles. He indicated that his administration would pursue expanded training and capacity-building programmes for members, alongside deliberate efforts to position MARAN as an active participant in maritime policy discourse.
“My dream includes strengthening professionalism among maritime journalists, improving members’ welfare, creating more training and capacity-building opportunities, and deepening engagement with industry stakeholders,” he stated.
The new president also placed ethical journalism at the centre of his reform vision, with a particular emphasis on mentoring the next generation of reporters covering Nigeria’s maritime sector.
“We intend to promote ethical journalism and ensure that younger journalists are mentored appropriately,” he said.
Reconciliation and Inclusivity
Beyond the reform agenda, Onigbinde pledged to heal divisions within the association that may have widened during the electioneering period. He gave assurances that his administration would run an inclusive ship, leaving no room for factional loyalties.
“My administration will be inclusive. There will be no room for party A or party B. Everybody must see themselves as part of this government regardless of who supported me or not,” he declared.
He disclosed that he had already reached out to his opponent, Rev. Iwori, immediately after the election results were announced, and expressed hope that both men would work together to advance the association. “I look forward to working with him and building stronger synergy to take MARAN to greater heights,” he said.
As part of his reconciliation drive, Onigbinde also announced plans to re-engage past presidents and long-standing members who had drifted from active participation in the association, noting that several former presidents had already signalled readiness to return following his election.
Flagship Programmes to Continue
The MARAN president reaffirmed his commitment to sustaining the association’s Annual Maritime Lecture, describing it as a critical platform for industry engagement and policy debate that his administration intends to strengthen further.
Nigeria Watch
MARAN’s health matters to Nigerian maritime journalism — and by extension, to the quality of public discourse around the sector’s development. An association that consistently produces well-trained, ethically grounded reporters is a strategic asset for institutions like NIMASA, the NPA, the NSC, and the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, all of which depend on an informed media to build stakeholder trust and drive policy accountability.
Onigbinde’s stated emphasis on capacity-building, ethical standards, and stakeholder collaboration is well-calibrated. Whether the ambition translates into measurable outcomes will depend on the administration’s ability to mobilise resources, sustain member engagement, and resist the patronage pressures that have historically undermined associations of this kind. Waterwaysnews.ng will be watching
Portugal’s Seabed Energy Farms Points a New Way for Ocean Nations
By Ighoyota Onaibre | Waterways News Correspondent
Finland’s AW-Energy and a 14-partner European consortium have deployed WaveRoller technology off Peniche in a milestone that maritime and energy planners from Lagos to Abuja should be watching closely
Eight hundred and twenty metres off the coast of Peniche — a windswept fishing town on Portugal’s Atlantic seaboard long known for its big-wave surfing — something quietly extraordinary is happening on the ocean floor. Hinged panels, each the size of a large shipping container standing on end, are anchored to the seabed in 15 to 25 metres of water. As deep Atlantic swells roll in from the open ocean, the panels rock back and forth with the surge. Every tilt and recovery drives hydraulic fluid through onshore generators. The ocean is, in the most literal sense, doing the work.
This is not a laboratory experiment. It is the commercialisation of wave energy — one of the most elusive prizes in renewable power development — and it is happening now.
The Technology: How WaveRoller Works
The device behind the Peniche installation is the WaveRoller, developed by Finnish clean energy company AW-Energy. The first unit of the wave power farm was successfully installed on the seabed, marking the beginning of the commercial phase of clean electricity production.
The principle is elegantly simple. The technology consists of a vertical panel that moves with the sea currents, capturing energy that is transmitted to a hydraulic system and then to a power plant. Unlike offshore wind turbines, which are visible from the shore and exposed to storms, WaveRoller units sit beneath the surface, sheltered from the worst of the weather, anchored to the seabed by a foundation system engineered to handle the relentless pressure of open-ocean swells.
The device is installed 820 metres offshore from Peniche, and during the commissioning phase, operators collect data around the clock to monitor performance using motion, pressure, and strain gauge sensors engineered into its panel, foundation, and bearings. AW-Energy CEO Christopher Ridgewell has said the data received from the installation indicates the WaveRoller is operating well and performing in accordance with expectations.
The connection to the national grid runs via an onshore substation, meaning the power generated beneath the waves travels ashore through a submarine cable and feeds directly into Portugal’s electricity network — the same infrastructure that powers homes, hospitals, and factories.
ONDEP: Scaling Up to Commercial Reality
The latest and most significant chapter in Peniche’s wave energy story is the Ondas de Peniche project, known by its Portuguese acronym ONDEP. The ONDEP project has been awarded €19 million from the EU’s Horizon Europe funding programme to deploy a 2 MW wave energy array featuring four WaveRoller wave energy converters. The project commenced in October 2024 and will last five and a half years, encompassing the full spectrum of project activities — from design and manufacturing to testing, deployment, and operation.
Two megawatts may sound modest in an era of gigawatt-scale offshore wind farms, but the significance of ONDEP lies not in its size but in what it proves. The pilot wave farm will be installed and connected to the grid and will continue generating electricity for an additional eight years after the project’s official end (Energy Global) — a total operational horizon of more than thirteen years that will generate the long-term performance data the industry has long needed to attract serious infrastructure investment.
The ONDEP project will also establish a comprehensive, end-to-end European supply chain to support the deployment of gigawatt-scale wave energy across Europe and beyond, as a significant step towards the industrialisation of wave energy.
Ridgewell has described the project as the culmination of two decades of development work: “This project builds on two decades of hard work developing WaveRoller into a commercial asset. We’re excited to work on this collaboration together with the other partners to create a new industry in Europe.”
Led by Queen’s University Belfast, ONDEP involves 14 partners from Belgium, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
The breadth of that consortium — spanning universities, engineering firms, marine contractors, and grid operators — reflects the complexity of bringing an ocean energy technology from prototype to bankable commercial product.
Why Wave Energy Matters: The Case for the Unstoppable Resource
The appeal of wave energy, to engineers and energy planners alike, comes down to one word: predictability. Solar panels produce nothing at night and struggle on cloudy days. Wind turbines are idle when conditions are calm. But wave energy captured through the rhythmic motion of the sea offers one of the most consistent, predictable forms of renewable power on the planet. Unlike solar or wind, waves do not sleep. They do not stall. They do not depend on perfect weather.
This consistency is particularly valuable to grid operators trying to balance supply against demand around the clock. A power source that generates reliably through nights, cloudy seasons, and calm spells fills precisely the gap that intermittent renewables cannot. For coastal nations with energy deficits and long Atlantic-facing coastlines, it is a resource that literally never stops arriving.
The Africa Dimension: A $296 Billion Blue Economy Waiting
For Nigerian maritime and energy policymakers, the Peniche story carries a very direct message. Nigeria boasts an 853-kilometre coastline along the Atlantic Ocean and extensive inland waterways covering over 10,000 kilometres. Data from the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency projects the value of Nigeria’s untapped blue economy potential at a stunning $296 billion. (Voice of Nigeria)
Apart from harnessing tidal and wave energy as part of Nigeria’s green transition, marine biotechnology, research and development in marine-based pharmaceuticals and bio-products are opportunities waiting.
Research has already begun to quantify the resource. A study evaluating Brass Creek in Rivers State found that the site is characterised by moderate to high significant wave heights and favourable wave periods, with annual mean wave power density reaching 31.42 kW/m and seasonal peaks observed during summer and autumn. The prevailing wave direction aligns with the Atlantic swell, further supporting the site’s suitability for wave energy extraction. The same study found that significant wave heights above 1.5 metres occur with a probability of 93.6%, underscoring the reliability of the resource.
Yet despite this documented potential, Africa has no commercial wave farms today — not one.
The instantaneous wave power resource of African waters has previously been estimated to be between 324 GW and 422 GW — a figure that dwarfs Nigeria’s current installed electricity generation capacity many times over. Investing in offshore wind, tidal, and wave energy can provide sustainable sources of electricity while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, according to analysts assessing Nigeria’s blue economy prospects.
Nigeria Watch: What the Peniche Milestone Means for Nigeria’s Marine and Energy Sectors
Portugal’s Peniche installation is more than a technology story. It is a policy signal — and Nigerian stakeholders, from the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy to NIMASA and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, should take note of several dimensions.
The regulatory template. Portugal has not simply funded a project; it has built a framework — grid connection standards, seabed lease arrangements, environmental monitoring protocols — that took years to develop. Nigeria’s maritime regulatory architecture, currently being strengthened under the Marine and Blue Economy agenda, will need analogous structures if ocean energy is ever to attract private capital.
The financing model. ONDEP’s €19 million EU Horizon Europe grant was matched by a consortium of fourteen institutional partners. No single government carried the risk. Nigeria’s engagement with multilateral development finance — the African Development Bank, the World Bank’s IFC, and bilateral climate funds — offers a comparable pathway, particularly given Nigeria’s NDC commitments under the Paris Agreement.
The coastal community dimension. One of the stated objectives of the Peniche installation is ensuring that residents of Peniche benefit directly from the energy it generates. Nigeria’s coastal communities — in Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Lagos, Ogun, and Ondo states — have historically seen their maritime resources extracted without equivalent benefit flowing back. A wave energy programme conceived from the outset around local grid connection and community benefit-sharing would represent a meaningful departure from that pattern.
The port infrastructure opportunity. Eco Wave Power, a separate Israeli-Swedish technology company, is implementing a first 1MW project at a breakwater facility in Porto, Portugal, which is expected to be finalised during 2026. The Porto model — attaching wave energy converters to existing port infrastructure rather than deploying standalone offshore arrays — is directly applicable to Nigeria, where the Nigerian Ports Authority manages breakwater and jetty structures at multiple locations along the coast. NPA’s concession renewal discussions and its ongoing infrastructure modernisation programme would be a natural vehicle for piloting a comparable installation.
The Bottom Line
What Portugal has demonstrated at Peniche is not a proof of concept — that stage passed some years ago. What it has demonstrated is commercial viability at grid scale, backed by serious institutional money, operating under real regulatory conditions, with a business model that works.
For Nigeria, with its vast Atlantic coastline, its chronic electricity deficit, its expanding Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy mandate, and its $296 billion blue economy prize still largely uncaptured, the question is no longer whether wave energy is technically possible. The question is whether the policy will, the institutional coordination, and the financing architecture can be assembled before another decade passes.
Peniche’s seabed is moving. Lagos’s energy planners should be too.
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