A real-world oil tanker simulation
Sail east through the strait to load 2 million barrels of oil in the Gulf of Oman, then return west to deliver it. Your profit = oil price × barrels, minus any tolls or repairs.
Every time the game loads, it fetches two real-world data points:
Strait status — pulled from hormuzstraitmonitor.com, a live dashboard tracking the current Hormuz shipping crisis. As of April 2026, the strait has been effectively closed to commercial traffic since February 28th following Iranian naval blockade operations. If the site reports the strait as open, the game runs in easy mode — patrol boats only, demanding small passage fees. If closed, the full arsenal activates: sea mines, kamikaze drones, mobile missile batteries, and $2M toll demands.
Brent crude oil price — fetched from Yahoo Finance's public quote API. Brent is the global benchmark for oil traded out of the Middle East. With the strait closed, prices have surged well above $100/barrel — roughly 20% of the world's oil supply normally flows through this 24-mile chokepoint. Your 2-million-barrel cargo is worth whatever Brent is trading at the moment you load it.
Goal: Maximize net profit across multiple runs. Cargo value is set when you reach the Gulf of Oman — but you still have to survive the return trip to collect it.
Threats (closed mode): IRGC fast-attack boats that fire within 14 units · Dhow sailboats that deploy floating mines · Kamikaze drone boats with descending shadow warnings · Mobile anti-ship missiles fired from the Iranian coast with a 2-second warning ring.
Toll system: Iranian authorities periodically demand passage fees — $250k in open mode, $2M when closed. Paying grants ~20 seconds of immunity. Refusing triggers an immediate escalation.
Repairs: After each successful delivery you can spend profit to repair hull damage at $800k per percentage point. A heavily damaged ship costs ~$20-30M to fully restore — often not worth it for a short next run.
The Strait of Hormuz is 24 miles wide at its narrowest, with two 2-mile shipping lanes. Iran controls the northern coastline and has positioned mobile missile batteries in the hills, making the waterway nearly impossible to defend conventionally. Nearly 2,000 vessels are currently stranded in the Persian Gulf. Read the full CNN report →
Arrow Keys / WASD to steer & throttle