The US blockade of the Iranian blockade is looking increasingly more porous.
Iran said 35 ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours in coordination with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Iranian state broadcaster reported on Friday. The navy had already reported on Wednesday that 26 ships had passed through the strait within 24 hours. On Friday, the data provider Kpler confirmed only 10 passages on Wednesday. This represented an increase from the four passages recorded the previous day.
Strait of Hormuz | Vessel Crossings
Confirmed Strait of Hormuz transits rose to 10 on 20 May from four the previous day, while the IRGC Navy stated that 26 vessels were underway following coordination and approval procedures with Iranian authorities.
Most movements involved… pic.twitter.com/xivkr61r14
The armed forces said the vessels included oil tankers, cargo ships and other merchant ships.
Tehran has repeatedly stressed that the Strait of Hormuz is not blocked. In practice, however, shipping companies must coordinate with Iranian contact points and are then only allowed to pass through a corridor near the Iranian coast. Then they have to also obtain permission to cross the US blockade located further out in the Arabian Gulf.
Iran's leadership charges high fees (paid in bitcoin) for this. International law experts said such fees violate the right of transit.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in Sweden for a NATO foreign ministers meeting, condemned Iran's attempts at creating a tolling system for the strait. "I don't know of a country in the world that's in favor of it except Iran, but there's no country in the world that should accept it," he said.
Rubio confirmed a previous report from Bloomberg, saying Iran was trying to convince Oman to join the tolling system "in an international waterway."
He said there is a UN resolution sponsored by Bahrain and "the highest number of co-sponsors of any resolution ever before" in front of the UN Security Council, but admitted that "a couple of countries" are "thinking about vetoing it" which Rubio called "lamentable."
The United States is doing all it can to prevent an Iranian toll system from being established in the strait. Such a system is "just not acceptable. It can't happen," he said. He assumed all NATO countries had backed the resolution or would do so soon.
Rubio warned that if the Iranians are successful in pushing the toll system through it could happen elsewhere.
Tyler Durden Fri, 05/22/2026 - 14:05Submitted by Irina Slav of OilPrice.com
India’s power generation rose to a new all-time high amid hot weather that drove air-conditioning demand up, with thermal generation, most of its coming from coal power plants, covering 62% of demand.
Power demand on Thursday hit 271 GW, on the “fourth consecutive day when the peak power demand (solar hours) reached a new all-time high,” India’s power ministry said, as quoted by AFP.
After milder temperatures tempered demand growth in the fiscal year to March 2026 to the lowest level in six years, demand is now beating peak consumption records amid heat waves at the start of this year’s summer.
India’s coal demand from power plants is set to rise by 11.5% in the April to June quarter amid the peak electricity demand season in the country in May and June, sources with knowledge of the matter told the Economic Times in April.
Besides coal, which dominated India’s grid this week, solar power covered 22% of demand, the power ministry also said, while hydro and wind provided another 5% each. India has been putting a lot of effort into diversifying its sources of electricity to reduce its reliance on imported fuels and cut emissions, of which it is the third-largest generator in the world.
India expects to nearly quadruple its solar power capacity and triple wind power-generating assets within ten years, according to the new Generation Adequacy Plan published by the country’s Central Electricity Authority earlier this year.
Challenges, however, remain, mostly in transmission, reflecting the broader global picture, where grid upgrades lag behind wind and solar installations, prompting so-called curtailment, which in the first quarter of the year reached 300 GWh. Coal-fired power generation and capacity installations, meanwhile, continue to rise, and coal remains a key pillar of India’s electricity mix, with about 60% share of total power output.
Tyler Durden Fri, 05/22/2026 - 13:45