As Iranian missiles streaked over the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, bringing traffic across one of the world’s most vital trade lanes to a near halt, one Greek billionaire was steering his ships straight into the turmoil.
Dynacom Tankers, owned by 79-year-old George Prokopiou, has sent at least five tankers through the narrow waterway at the mouth of the Gulf since the outbreak of war with Iran on Saturday, making it one of a handful of legal operators willing to brave the journey.
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There are big rewards on offer. Freight rates for tankers leaving the Gulf have more than doubled since Friday, hitting record highs. A single very large crude carrier (VLCC) making the perilous voyage across the strait and into China would earn about $500,000 in revenue per day, excluding the cost of additional war-risk insurance, according to price-reporting agency Argus.
While the risks for the owners are money and tankers, the sailors onboard are putting their lives on the line. Iran has threatened to set any ships attempting the passage “on fire”, hitting at least nine since the conflict began with at least three seafarers killed.
All of Dynacom’s vessels turned off their transponders, devices that automatically transmit a vessel’s location and identity, for their passage through the strait.
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“He’s an industry legend and one of those people that does what we call ‘premium’ business,” said one ship broker who has worked with Prokopiou’s companies in recent years, using a euphemism for trades that are legal but carry much higher risks.
Prokopiou’s Dynacom Tankers has moved tens of millions of barrels of Russian crude oil over the past year and is one of the biggest lifters of the cargo since Moscow launched its assault on Ukraine in early 2022, according to FT analysis of Kpler data and ship ownership records.
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Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention put Dynacom Tankers on its list of “international sponsors of war” for its role shipping Russian crude, accusing it of “replenishing the budget of the aggressor country and financing the Russian invasion”. However, in 2023 it withdrew Dynacom from the list and in 2024 withdrew the list altogether, following pressure from its overseas partners.
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