JOEL ROSE, HOST:
President Trump blames the Russia-Ukraine war for soaring energy costs. The war with Iran, though, is the dominant factor keeping global diesel prices high. This weekend, the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations Centre reported two oil tankers traversing the Strait of Hormuz were attacked. Nearly a hundred vessels have been hit since the U.S. war with Iran began, resulting in two dozen deaths, according to the U.N. And the attacks are taking on new forms.
MANOJ YADAV: Small boats that surrounded a few of the vessels and started firing with RPG and even with the guns.
ROSE: Manoj Yadav is the general secretary of a union representing merchant sailors from India - many of whom work in the Persian Gulf. He says because of that danger, ship captains and sailors making these transits are being offered big money.
YADAV: Not only one time, two time, three times - five times of their salary they are getting just to transit the Hormuz Strait.
ROSE: Five times their regular salary.
YADAV: Yeah.
ROSE: And if they don't comply, Yadav says they might be punished.
YADAV: And maybe there are possibility that they will get blacklisted.
ROSE: Now, oil deliveries through the Strait of Hormuz have recently seen a recovery, maybe as much as 80% of the pre-war supply, according to trade intelligence firm Kpler. But the cost of getting through the choke point continues to hit pocketbooks around the world. And in the U.S., that's raising the political stakes ahead of the midterm elections. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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