IMO Estimates There Are 80 Mines in Hormuz’s Shipping Lanes

By Jack Wittels, Grant Smith and Alex Longley (Bloomberg) — The Strait of Hormuz has about 80 mines in its historic shipping lanes, the UN’s International Maritime Organization estimated Friday, showing how difficult it will be to return the key oil channel to normal.

The Iran war has led to the creation of two alternative shipping channels through Hormuz: one that hugs Oman’s coast and is coordinated by the US, and a separate Tehran-controlled one that veers closer to Iran. That’s because explosives are thought to have been deployed in the middle corridor — known as the Traffic Separation Scheme.

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