Attacks on tankers around the Strait of Hormuz have reached their highest level since the war with Iran began, cutting traffic through the waterway to its lowest point in more than two months. Gulf producers, however, are moving enough crude around the strait to keep the region’s exports near prewar levels.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the U.S. State Department has designated a terrorist organization, claimed Friday that it had struck a liquefied petroleum gas carrier it identified as the NV Sunshine as the ship tried to use what it called an “illegal route” through the southern part of the strait. The claim could not be independently verified. The IRGC said the strike, carried out Thursday, set off a fire in the ship’s engine room and propulsion system.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency separately reported Friday that a vessel was struck by an unknown projectile 13 nautical miles west of Al Jazeera in the United Arab Emirates, causing a fire that was later put out. The status of the crew was unknown. Two shipping and security sources told Reuters the vessel was the Panama-flagged crude supertanker GEM NO.2, which was fully laden, and security firm Vanguard said the ship had issued a distress alert reporting the fire. It was the second ship struck inside the Gulf in three days.
“Any ship using an unauthorized transit route will be pursued throughout the region, and its punishment will be inevitable,” the IRGC said, according to Agence France-Presse. Iran considers the southern route along the Omani coast illegal and demands that ships sail along the Iranian coast instead. The U.S. Navy has been escorting merchant ships along the southern route, many with their transponders switched off. UKMTO said in its weekly security overview Friday that 41 of the 59 incidents involving commercial shipping since July 6 had occurred along the southern route.
On Wednesday, a tanker in the Gulf about 50 nautical miles north of Qatar’s Madinat ash Shamal reported being struck by “multiple projectiles,” according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency. The agency said casualties were reported but did not say how many people were killed or injured. Maritime security firm Vanguard identified the vessel as the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged oil and chemical tanker Acers. The Maritime Executive said it was the first reported attack on a tanker in the western half of the Gulf in weeks. At least 24 seafarers have been killed in 93 confirmed incidents, according to the International Maritime Organization.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Acers. Security firm Ambrey said the ship had entered the Gulf through the U.S.-designated southern route of the strait on the night of Oct. 3-4, and that it was heading for Kuwait under its own power after the crew put out a fire.
A day earlier, a projectile struck the Panama-flagged oil tanker On Peace about nine nautical miles off the Omani port of Limah, setting it on fire. India’s foreign ministry said 12 of the 19 crew members were injured. Seventeen of the crew were Indian nationals, including 11 of the injured. The On Peace appears on a blacklist kept by Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority, which accuses listed ships of violating Iranian transit rules. Oman’s air force flew 10 of the injured to a hospital in Khasab, the Omani defense ministry said.
Reuters, citing three maritime security sources, reported at least 12 attacks on oil, liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas tankers around the strait between Sept. 28 and Oct. 5. That is the most in any week since the war began on Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. The U.N.’s International Maritime Organization, which takes longer to verify incidents, recorded nine.
The Joint Maritime Information Center, a U.S. Navy-led coordination center that advises merchant shipping, confirmed four attacks on tankers in the strait on Oct. 2 and 3, all on the Omani side and all by unidentified projectiles. In one, the ship’s master reported that a drone flew into the funnel and dropped into the engine room.
The attacks “continue to demonstrate Iran’s intent to assert presence along key transit lanes and maintain pressure on transiting vessels,” the JMIC said.
U.S. officials repeatedly say the strait is open.
“The U.S. military has successfully assisted thousands of commercial vessels with transiting the Strait of Hormuz, facilitating the transport of more than 1.25 billion barrels of crude oil through the Strait despite Iran’s continued attacks and proclamations that the Strait is closed,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson told MBN on Friday.
“The United States will continue to take decisive action against Iran’s attempts to disrupt freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and hold the global economy hostage.”
More than 20 ships transited the strait on Sunday and Monday, Kpler said in a note, according to Reuters, but that traffic dropped to just seven ships on Tuesday and 10 on Wednesday, the lowest levels since July 23.
Those figures do not include ships that switch off their identification systems to avoid detection, and Kpler’s preliminary counts are sometimes revised higher after the fact.
Data from the U.S. Navy’s Naval Cooperation and Guidance for Shipping showed 32 vessel transits on average moved through the Strait of Hormuz per day over the 72 hours prior to Oct. 4. That’s still well below the 125 large commercial vessel transits that crossed the strait daily before the war.
The escalation of attacks on tankers comes after talks at the recent U.N. General Assembly last month between American and Iranian officials failed to yield any breakthrough in the conflict, which began in February when Israel and the United States jointly attacked Iran.
The months since have seen on-again, off-again flare ups in the conflict.
An ongoing naval blockade by the U.S. on ships coming to and from Iran has had what U.S. officials describe as a devastating impact on the country’s economy, which is heavily dependent on crude oil exports.
U.S. Central Command reported Oct. 5 that it had redirected 130 commercial vessels since the blockade began. It also said it had destroyed 13 commercial vessels that were violating the blockade or were a part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ “multibillion-dollar shadow network.”
Crude oil shipments through the strait have fallen 27% from a wartime high the week before, to at least 10.1 million barrels a day, Kpler said in an Oct. 6 note. That is 74% of prewar levels.
But exporters have increasingly turned to alternative routes, helping to offset the losses from one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints.
Exports from the Gulf of Oman and the Red Sea have risen to 6.7 million barrels a day, twice what they were prewar, according to Kpler, as quoted by Reuters.
Total oil flows from the Gulf region have recovered to roughly prewar levels, with Gulf exporters topping prewar volumes for about half of September, according to shipping data cited by Reuters.
The recent attacks have pushed oil prices higher. Brent crude, an important global benchmark, closed up 4% at $104.28 a barrel on Thursday after touching nearly $106, NBC News reported. Benchmark diesel futures jumped 6% in European trading.
The Treasury Department on Thursday sanctioned 17 vessels it said belonged to Iran’s “shadow fleet,” which moved Iranian crude and petroleum products to markets in South and East Asia.
The same day, U.S. President Donald Trump said, “We will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the Midterm Elections to be held in the United States on November 3rd,” while adding that the blockade would “remain in full force and effect.” He also said 22 million barrels of oil had moved through the strait overnight, none of it to or from Iran.
