Tanker Attacks Intensify in the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Aden
Cubierto por 7 fuentesPublicado
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The tanker Lipsi, operated by Dynacom, was struck on October 4 by an unidentified missile while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, causing damage to the engine room and leaving the vessel adrift, although the entire crew was unharmed. Days earlier, on October 1, the tanker Kazimah III was also attacked on the same route by a projectile that sparked a fire, and in parallel, UKMTO reported explosions near a tanker about 60 nautical miles south of the Yemeni city of Mokha, in the Gulf of Aden.
The Vessels Affected
The Lipsi is a Liberian-flagged Aframax/LR2 with a deadweight of 115,057 tonnes, which had been delivered to Dynacom on August 24 following construction at Shanhaiguan Shipbuilding, just six weeks before the attack; it was left drifting near Jazirat Umm al Fayarin, about 3.9 nautical miles northeast of that area. In the case of the Kuwaiti-flagged Kazimah III, five Indian nationals on board were safely rescued with the assistance of Omani authorities, as confirmed by the Indian Embassy in Oman.
A Wave of Attacks Over the Weekend
UKMTO reported that, in addition to the Lipsi, an LPG tanker was struck on October 4 at 17:16 UTC and a crude oil tanker at 19:07 UTC on that same day, while another crude carrier was hit above the waterline on October 3. The Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC) confirmed four attacks between October 2 and 3, identified as UKMTO incidents 147-26 through 150-26, all during transits through the Strait. In a separate incident, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps boarded a tanker near Khasab, Oman, and ordered it to turn back under threat of attack, an order the vessel's captain complied with. On Monday night, around 16:37 UTC, another tanker was struck by an unidentified projectile off the Musandam Peninsula, sparking a fire in the engine room that the crew was fighting at the time of the report, with no injuries or environmental damage.
More Than Ten Vessels Affected in One Week
Eurasia Group analyst Gregory Brew estimated that Iran had struck 11 vessels since the previous Wednesday, as part of what he described as an intense campaign to curb crude exports from Gulf producers. For its part, UKMTO revealed on Monday two previously unknown attacks that occurred over the weekend, bringing the total number of vessels hit by Iranian fire since September 29 to ten tankers and one LPG carrier.
Energy Flows Continue
Despite the escalation in attacks, the region's energy flows have not stopped. Provisional data from tracking firm Kpler showed that Middle East crude exports exceeded pre-war levels on four of the seven days in the last week of September. At the same time, Gulf producers turned to convoys of "shuttle" vessels moving crude between loading ports and the Fujairah anchorage, a method that, according to satellite data, largely restored pre-conflict export volumes by late September.
