UKMTO Reports Burning, Partially Sunk Tanker off Musandam

The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) center reported that a tanker caught fire and was left mostly submerged about nine nautical miles north of Khasab, a port town located at the northern tip of the Musandam Peninsula in Oman. The alert arose from a report by the master of a passing vessel, and the condition of the affected tanker's crew remains unknown.

Maritime security consultancy Vanguard Tech, which released information alongside UKMTO, stated that the vessel was struck by a projectile and was left largely underwater. According to the same source, a third vessel was nearby and may have been providing assistance, although no rescue operation was confirmed. The master of a Panamanian-flagged tanker passing through the area was the one who reported sighting the burning, nearly submerged vessel.

For its part, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) offered a different account regarding a supertanker that, according to its statements, exploded after striking a naval mine in the Strait of Hormuz while carrying nearly two million barrels of crude oil. The IRGC claimed the vessel had disabled its tracking system while transiting the strait, in violation of Iranian regulations, though it did not disclose the vessel's name, exact location, owner, flag of registry, or the condition of the crew. This account differs from that reported by UKMTO and Vanguard, which describe a projectile strike rather than a mine.

The incident occurs amid a growing wave of attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Researcher Noam Raydan of the Washington Institute counted a total of 30 Iranian attacks on vessels since the beginning of October, the fastest pace since the conflict began in February, with incidents concentrated in the strait but also recorded farther afield, as far as Iraq and Oman. According to International Maritime Organization figures cited by Splash 247, 121 confirmed maritime incidents have been recorded in the Middle East so far this year through October 27, with 24 seafarers killed, and they cite previous losses such as the bulk carrier Cape Dao, sunk off Khasab in September, and the container ship GFS Pride, lost in the strait in early October.

The Strait of Hormuz, about 30 kilometers wide between Iran and Oman, is one of the world's most critical shipping lanes and under normal conditions channels a fifth of global oil and gas shipments. According to Financial Ports, Iran has tightened control over the waterway by requiring prior authorization for vessel transits, a requirement the United States rejects as a violation of international maritime law, while Washington maintains a naval blockade on Iranian ports in response to those demands.