Iran claims it’s talking to Oman about jointly “supervising” the Strait of Hormuz

Good morning, friends. We close the week with a simple question in mind: What the hell is Oman doing?

Iran may have just taken a big step toward claiming Hormuz as the toll-generating equivalent of the Suez Canal. A top Iranian diplomat says Oman and Tehran are “drafting a protocol for Iran and Oman to supervise transit in the Strait of Hormuz.” The agreement will “facilitate and ensure safe passage and provide better services to ships that pass through this route,” deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi says.

Oman has been quiet about what it’s up to, but three Omani ships appear to have passed through Hormuz late yesterday — Bloomberg says they were two oil tankers and an LNG carrier. Reuters separately reported that Oman had mysteriously delivered its first LNG shipment to Germany’s state-owned SEFE, which said only that the shipment was “unaffected” by the war. There’s only one way SEFE could have taken delivery: A vessel made it through Hormuz.

MEANWHILE- With week five of the war drawing to a close and The Donald seeming no closer to declaring victory and going home, we have the inside track this morning on how both airline and pipeline networks could be reconfigured as the Gulf comes to the realization that it hasn’t decoupled from geopolitics, after all. Have a great weekend, folks. –Patrick