A Kuwait-owned oil products tanker was struck by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz near Oman as tensions escalate around the key shipping lanes of the Middle East, sending Brent back above $90 per barrel.
The Kaifan tanker, owned by Kuwait Oil Tanker Co. S.A.K., was the vessel hit by an unknown projectile in the Strait, per security consultancy EOS Risk Group cited by Bloomberg.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations UKMTO said early on Tuesday that it had received a report of an incident 8 nautical miles northeast of Limah, Oman. UKMTO has received multiple reports that a tanker is reporting over VHF Channel 16 that it has been struck by an unknown projectile in the Strait of Hormuz. The CSO of the tanker has reported to UKMTO that the crew have abandoned the vessel and are currently embarked in a lifeboat. No environmental impact has been reported, UKMTO said.
The latest incident comes as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has ground to a halt amid multiple Iranian attacks on vessels transiting the southern lane close to Oman.
Tanker operators have all but stopped attempts to transit the Strait since the hostilities returned more than a week ago, and Iran started attacking and harassing vessels in the Strait of Hormuz again.
Late last week, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy announced it had intercepted four ships attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. These ships had switched off their transponders, and two were “met with accidents and were stopped in their tracks,” the Revolutionary Guards said.
Tanker traffic at Hormuz has collapsed to a two-month low, reigniting fears of supply shortages amid peak summer oil demand.
The regional security situation further deteriorated on Monday after Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis declared an immediate naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, bringing the U.S.-Iran war officially to the southern entrance of the Red Sea and threatening an export route used by Riyadh to bypass disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.
By Charles kennedy for Oilprice.com
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