There's another big reason why shipping companies and insurers aren't willing to risk the Strait of Hormuz

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Global insurers, brokers and shipping companies are concerned about an environmental catastrophe if an oil tanker sinks in the Persian Gulf.

It’s a massive risk in a region that stretches from Kuwait to Qatar — an area of glittering high-rise buildings, posh beachfront resorts and booming commercial centers. Its incredible wealth and shift toward tourism is a dramatic change from the late 1980s, when a tanker war between Iraq and Iran threatened the oil trade in the Persian Gulf.

What the region doesn’t have is the kind of sophisticated oil clean-up industry and technology that is readily available in the United States, according to a risk advisor who asked not to be named.

That expensive pollution risk has not yet been addressed by the global insurance market, which doesn’t have the data to calculate business disruption claims should a massive oil spill contaminate destination beaches.