UKMTO reports tanker incident near Sohar anchorage in Oman
The crew's condition, any damage and environmental impact are not yet known, UKMTO says.
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The UK Maritime Trade Operations centre said it received a report of an incident involving a tanker near the Sohar anchorage in Oman. UKMTO said the status of the crew, the extent of any damage and any environmental impact were unknown at the time of the report.
The report is the latest in a string of tanker incidents around Oman and the wider Strait of Hormuz corridor that has run since mid-September. Earlier reports in the sequence went unconfirmed, but the most recent strike in the Qatar area, 51 nautical miles north of Madinat Ash Shamal, produced confirmed casualties, marking an escalation beyond the earlier ambiguous debris and projectile reports.
Separately on Sunday, UKMTO reported that an outbound tanker in the Strait of Hormuz was struck on its port side by an unknown projectile, causing a fire on board, according to Al Jazeera. UKMTO said the crew was safe but that damage and environmental impact were unknown. UKMTO also said it received a report of an incident involving a tanker and military forces in the Gulf of Oman, hours after US Central Command said it had disabled a commercial cargo vessel there for allegedly attempting to run a naval blockade against Iran, Middle East Eye reported. Iran's Revolutionary Guard said it struck a vessel in the strait for taking an "illegal route," as Tehran enforces its own blockade of the waterway, Al Jazeera reported. Separately, Iranian state media said an oil tanker exploded and caught fire on Saturday after hitting a naval mine while transiting the strait, the Jerusalem Post reported. Central Command has said that over three months of its blockade against Iran, four commercial vessels have been disabled and 135 ships turned around, with ten tankers linked to the Revolutionary Guard destroyed, according to the Jerusalem Post.
With the crew's condition, damage and environmental impact still unknown in the Sohar case, the report adds another data point to the standing risk premium attached to Hormuz shipping rather than a confirmed new shock. Similar unverified reports through the corridor have so far been absorbed without disrupting measured transit volumes or export flows.