French Vessel Transits Strait of Hormuz as Shipping Tensions Continue

On the afternoon of April 3, a Maltese-flagged container ship owned by CMA CGM — France's shipping giant and the world's third-largest container line — sailed eastbound from Dubai and threaded through the narrow corridor between Iran's Qeshm and Larak islands [1]. The CMA CGM Kribi, broadcasting "Owner France" on its transponder to signal its nationality to Iranian coastal authorities, became the first vessel linked to a Western European company to cross the Strait of Hormuz since the waterway effectively shut down more than a month ago [2].

The crossing, reportedly coordinated in advance with Iranian maritime authorities, was not merely a commercial voyage [3]. It was a signal — to insurers, to rival shipping lines, and to governments from Paris to Beijing — about whether the world's most important energy chokepoint might be reopening.

The Chokepoint That Stopped

Before February 28, 2026, the Strait of Hormuz averaged roughly 100 to 153 vessel transits per day, depending on the measurement source, carrying approximately 20.9 million barrels per day of crude oil, condensate, and refined petroleum products — more than a quarter of all seaborne oil trade globally [4][5]. Qatar shipped over 112 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas through the strait in 2025, representing about one-fifth of global LNG trade [5].

Source: IMF PortWatch / Lloyd's List

Data as of Apr 3, 2026CSV

Then, on February 28, coordinated U.S.-Israeli military strikes hit targets inside Iran. Tehran's response was immediate: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched retaliatory missile and drone attacks and issued warnings prohibiting vessel passage [6]. Within days, daily transits collapsed from around 100 ships to approximately six between March 1 and March 8 [4]. Analysts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote bluntly: "No one, not even Beijing, is getting through the Strait of Hormuz" [7].

The disruption has been described as the largest to energy supply since the 1970s oil crisis, with roughly 10 million barrels per day of oil production effectively removed from accessible global markets [8].

Oil Prices and Economic Fallout

The market response was swift and severe. Brent crude surpassed $100 per barrel on March 8 for the first time in four years, eventually peaking at $126 [8]. WTI crude oil closed at $104.69 in late March 2026 — up 45.7% year-over-year [9]. LNG spot prices in Asia jumped over 140% following strikes on Qatar's facilities [8].

Source: FRED / EIA

Data as of Mar 30, 2026CSV

For France specifically, the economic exposure is more indirect than it is for Asian importers. The European Union sources only about 8% of its crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia, and France maintains strategic oil reserves covering 108 days of imports [10][11]. French officials have publicly emphasized this buffer. But the country's vulnerability runs through global pricing: when 20 million barrels per day are removed from the market, the price of every barrel rises, regardless of origin.

Europe's direct LNG exposure through Hormuz stood at roughly 7% of imports in 2025 — with Italy, Belgium, and Poland most affected — but the global LNG market's interconnection means price spikes radiate to all buyers [12]. UNCTAD has warned that the disruptions have raised inflation risks and heightened fears of stagflation across oil-importing nations [13].

The Insurance Crisis

Perhaps the clearest measure of risk in maritime commerce is the war-risk insurance premium — the additional cost a shipowner must pay for a vessel to enter a conflict zone. The trajectory of Hormuz premiums over the past two years tells its own story.

Source: Lloyd's List / S&P Global

Data as of Mar 26, 2026CSV

In January 2024, war-risk premiums for Hormuz transit ran about 0.125% of a vessel's hull replacement value [14]. By mid-2025, as Iranian vessel seizures continued and Houthi attacks in the Red Sea kept the broader region tense, premiums had risen to between 0.2% and 0.4%, with vessels linked to Israel or its allies facing quotes as high as 0.7% [14].

The February 28 strikes changed the calculus entirely. Within 48 hours, premiums surged fivefold. Major marine insurers terminated existing policies and offered replacements at roughly sixty times pre-crisis rates [15]. By late March, quotes reached 5% to 10% of hull value for some vessels — meaning a large tanker worth $100 million could face a $5–10 million insurance bill for a single seven-day policy [14][16]. Lloyd's List reported that insurers were demanding $10 million to $14 million per voyage for large vessels transiting the strait [14].

For vessels with U.S., UK, or Israeli connections, the surcharges were highest [15]. S&P Global reported that some underwriters simply stopped writing Hormuz policies altogether [15]. These costs inevitably pass through to cargo owners, freight rates, and ultimately consumers.

Iran's Legal Framework — and Its Critics

Iran's approach to the strait has long rested on a specific legal argument. Tehran has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and it maintains that the transit passage regime established under UNCLOS Articles 37–44 does not bind it [17]. Instead, Iran argues that a regime of "innocent passage" applies, granting it broader authority as a coastal state to supervise, condition, and restrict traffic on security grounds [17].

Iran's domestic legislation reinforces this claim. A 1993 law, the "Law of Marine Areas of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea," authorizes Iran to suspend foreign ship passage through its territorial waters and requires prior authorization for warships, submarines, and vessels carrying hazardous materials [17].

This framework has provided the stated legal basis for a series of vessel seizures since 2019: the British-flagged Stena Impero in July 2019, held for two months in apparent retaliation for Britain's detention of an Iranian tanker off Gibraltar [18]; two Greek tankers seized in May 2022 and held until November [18]; the Marshall Islands-flagged Advantage Sweet in April 2023 [18]; the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries in April 2024 [19]; and the Marshall Islands-flagged Talara in November 2025, carrying 30,000 tonnes of petrochemicals [20].

The legal consensus outside Tehran is largely against these claims. The American Society of International Law has noted that the transit passage regime is "widely regarded as customary international law and binding on all States," regardless of whether they have ratified UNCLOS [21]. Scholars writing in the European Journal of International Law have argued that Iran's actions — particularly during the current conflict, where passage is selectively blocked based on a vessel's perceived alignment with "enemies of Iran" — violate UNCLOS Article 42, which limits coastal states from adopting measures that hamper transit [22].

Some legal analysts, however, acknowledge that Iran's position has limited merit under specific circumstances. The Just Security blog at NYU Law has noted that UNCLOS transit passage rights are not absolute: Article 39 requires ships in transit to "refrain from any threat or use of force against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence" of the bordering state, and Article 44 imposes obligations on bordering states not to hamper transit but also acknowledges their security interests [23]. During an active armed conflict in which Iran's territory is under attack, the intersection of the law of the sea and the law of armed conflict creates genuine gray areas.

France's Competing Interests

France's position in this crisis sits at the intersection of several competing commercial and strategic commitments. CMA CGM, the company whose ship just crossed the strait, is the world's third-largest container line and a centerpiece of French commercial power. TotalEnergies, France's energy major, holds extensive contracts across the Gulf: a joint venture with Oman's OQEP to build a one-million-ton-per-annum LNG plant at the entrance to the Gulf, long-term LNG supply agreements with CMA CGM running through 2040, and operating agreements in Iraq alongside QatarEnergy [24][25].

On the military side, France has deep arms-sales relationships with Gulf states that sit across the strait from Iran. The landmark 2021 deal with the UAE — 80 Rafale fighter jets and 12 Caracal helicopters for more than €17 billion — was the largest French arms export in history [26]. France authorized 583 arms export licenses to Saudi Arabia and 522 to the UAE between 2016 and 2018 alone [27]. Tehran has publicly accused France of "destabilizing" the Gulf through these sales [28].

At the same time, France has historically maintained diplomatic channels with Iran — participation in the JCPOA nuclear negotiations, trade relationships, and a posture distinct from Washington's "maximum pressure" approach. The current conflict complicates all of this. President Emmanuel Macron's response has been to frame France's naval buildup as "purely defensive" and focused on commercial freedom of navigation [29].

The Naval Buildup

France's military response has been its largest Middle Eastern naval deployment in decades. In early March, the French Navy announced it would send approximately ten additional warships to the region, including the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, eight frigates, and two Mistral-class amphibious helicopter carriers [30][31]. Two frigates were earmarked for the EU's Operation Aspides — originally established in February 2024 to counter Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping — with the mission potentially expanding to Hormuz escort duties [32].

Macron stated that France and its allies were preparing to escort container ships and tankers through the strait once "the most intense phase" of the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran ends [29]. This positions France as a guarantor of commercial passage rather than a belligerent — a distinction with both legal and diplomatic significance.

France's pre-crisis naval presence in the region was modest by comparison. The country has maintained a permanent base in Abu Dhabi since 2009 and typically rotated one frigate through Gulf waters. The current deployment represents a step change: from a token presence to a force capable of sustained convoy operations [30].

The broader coalition picture remains fragmented. Combined Maritime Forces, the U.S.-led multinational naval partnership based in Bahrain, coordinates Task Force 153 for Red Sea operations. But the Hormuz escort question has produced a different alignment — with France, the UK, and potentially other European navies discussing parallel or joint escort frameworks outside the CMF structure [30].

Does Naval Presence Deter — or Provoke?

The central strategic question underlying France's deployment is whether high-profile Western naval transits reduce or increase the risk of Iranian interdiction.

The historical data from 2019–2025 presents a mixed picture. The International Maritime Security Construct (IMSC), established in 2019 after the Stena Impero seizure, brought additional U.S., UK, and allied naval assets to the Gulf. Iranian vessel seizures did not stop: they continued in 2022 (two Greek tankers), 2023 (the Advantage Sweet), 2024 (the MSC Aries), and 2025 (the Talara) [18][19][20]. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy assessed in 2025 that "U.S. deterrence in the Middle East is not convincing enough to assure U.S. businesses about the safety of their operations in the region" [33].

Disputes around the strait, the International Crisis Group noted, "tend to be solved by a mix of diplomacy, naval deterrence, and ad hoc coalitions instead of formal legal settlement" — a pattern that reveals both the utility and the limits of military presence [34].

The current crisis introduces a new variable: Iran has conducted 21 confirmed attacks on merchant ships since the conflict began on February 28, implementing a selective passage policy that allows "limited and supervised passage for vessels from countries perceived as friendly or neutral, subject to coordination with Iranian authorities and payment to Iran" [22]. This is not the pre-2026 pattern of occasional seizures of isolated vessels. It is a functional toll system, enforced during wartime.

The CMA CGM Kribi's transit suggests that coordination with Iran — rather than defiance of it — may be the mechanism through which commercial shipping returns. The vessel reportedly obtained some form of clearance from Iranian maritime authorities before crossing [3]. Other ships have been seeking similar arrangements: Euronews reported in late March that multiple carriers were requesting Iranian authorization to transit, effectively accepting Tehran's claimed authority over the strait as a practical prerequisite for passage [16].

What the Kribi Transit Means

The Kribi's crossing does not mean the Strait of Hormuz is open. As of early April, daily transits remained a fraction of pre-crisis levels — roughly 15 ships per day compared to the pre-war average of over 100 [4]. But it establishes a precedent: a major Western-linked carrier can coordinate with Iran and pass through, at least while the most intense phase of hostilities has ebbed.

The commercial implications hinge on what follows. If additional CMA CGM vessels transit without incident, other carriers — Maersk, MSC, Hapag-Lloyd — will face pressure from shippers to resume service. Insurance underwriters will need to reassess their pricing. The question of whether transit requires Iranian permission will become an active legal and diplomatic issue, because accepting that requirement means accepting Iran's claim of sovereign authority over the strait in a way that UNCLOS does not contemplate.

For France, the Kribi's passage is both a commercial win and a diplomatic tightrope. CMA CGM's coordination with Tehran sits uneasily alongside France's naval buildup, its arms deals with Gulf states, and its alignment with the broader Western coalition. French officials have not publicly acknowledged the coordination, instead framing the transit as evidence that commercial normality can return [1].

The oil market will ultimately provide the verdict. With WTI crude above $104 and analysts warning of $200-per-barrel scenarios if the strait remains functionally closed [35], every additional ship through Hormuz pulls global energy markets back from a cliff. One French container ship cannot do that alone. But if the Kribi's voyage proves repeatable, it may mark the beginning of the end of the worst maritime disruption in half a century.