Iran says a deal with Oman over shipping through Strait of Hormuz is nearly final, Associated Press reports

Arrangements around Hormuz transit have recurred across prior cycles of Gulf tension, and the market-relevant distinction is between deals that genuinely reduce interdiction risk and those that merely formalise existing passage norms: the former compress tanker war-risk insurance premia and the geopolitical component of crude freight rates, the latter tend to be absorbed with little durable repricing. Oman has prior form as an intermediary channel between Iran and outside parties, so its involvement carries some credibility weight, though Iranian announcements of near-final deals have on previous occasions preceded prolonged or inconclusive negotiation. Roughly a fifth of seaborne crude transits the strait in normal times, which is why even rhetorical de-escalation around it has historically trimmed the risk premium in prompt crude spreads and Gulf-loading freight. The tells are whether Tehran's counterparts confirm the account, whether the arrangement touches inspection or escort protocols rather than just routing, and any movement in war-risk quotes and Very Large Crude Carrier rates on Gulf loadings. As a single-sourced report attributed to one party, the headline sits in the category of negotiating signalling rather than concluded fact.