Tanker struck by unknown projectile in Strait of Hormuz, UKMTO says
The report follows Iran's Revolutionary Guard saying it struck a Togo-flagged tanker, Trend, in the same waterway hours earlier.
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Map: The Gulf and Hormuz, marking Strait of Hormuz
The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency said a tanker was struck by an unknown projectile in the Strait of Hormuz.
The report comes hours after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy said it hit a Togo-flagged tanker called Trend, which caught fire and stopped in the strait. The IRGC Navy warned that any vessel crossing without authorization would be destroyed.
UKMTO has repeatedly warned that threat levels in the strait remain severe. Diplomatic talks with Iran remain on hold, and Tehran has claimed what it calls "intelligent control" of the waterway. US Energy Secretary Wright has put the seven-day average flow through the strait at 11 million barrels a day, though he has also cited a single day when 18 million barrels moved through, against an earlier average of 10 million.
The strike adds to a pattern of incidents in a corridor where Iran has shown it can sustain pressure on shipping. Flow has nominally held near 10 to 11 million barrels a day, but the threat level is high enough to keep a risk premium built into crude prices, and the continued shutdown of the Saudi pipeline that bypasses the strait removes a workaround that could otherwise ease that pressure for weeks. The pattern so far points to friction rather than any resolution.