Two supertankers carrying Saudi crude took unknown projectiles minutes apart while transiting outbound through the Strait of Hormuz late Monday, shipping intelligence and tracking firms Marisks and Kpler said. [1] The Saudi-flagged very large crude carrier Sidr was hit about 16.6 nautical miles northeast of Khasab around 1952 UTC. The Liberian-flagged VLCC Senegal Prosperity took three projectiles about 17 nautical miles east of Khasab minutes later. [1] Each had loaded about two million barrels at Saudi Aramco's Juaymah terminal last week. Crews were reported safe. [1]
Monday's paper had already treated mines and a burning tanker as part of the kinetic record, not a resolved strait. Tuesday names the hulls. The projectile type is still unknown in the Reuters copy gCaptain printed. [1] Do not convert that gap into mines. The IRGC's Monday mine claim and this overnight geometry are not the same event.
Marisks called the near-simultaneous incidents "a further escalation in the threat environment within the Omani corridor." [1] That corridor is the route independent flow data had been using to argue recovery. This paper's Monday oil file priced resumed fire as a 3 percent jump against still-thin physical traffic. Named VLCCs are the shipping answer to that tape. A companion piece in this edition owns the price print. This file owns the ships.
INTERTANKO said Tuesday that clearing mines from the strait's Traffic Separation Scheme is "not sufficient on its own" to bring commercial shipping back to normal. [3] "This is real progress and we welcome it," Marine Director Phillip Belcher said. "Clearing the shipping lanes is a necessary condition for the return of normal traffic, but it is not sufficient on its own." [3] Iran continues to insist that vessels use the northern corridor through Iranian waters. INTERTANKO said it "cannot be assumed that vessels using the TSS will be able to transit without interference." [3] Members, Belcher said, will keep making voyage decisions on guidance, their own risk assessments, "and above all the safety of their crews." [3]
U.S. Central Command Commander Admiral Brad Cooper announced last week that American forces had cleared mines from the TSS. [3] Tuesday's noon strikes were sold as the answer to attempted attacks on commercial shipping. [2] Brent crude futures, already up 2 percent on the day, jumped almost 2 percent more on the strike reports. [2] Paper crude can reprice a named hull in an hour. Physical traffic cannot. Aramco had resumed loadings from inside the strait in August. [1] Iranian media earlier Tuesday reported a Saudi oil tanker stopped in the southern corridor. [1] Neither Aramco nor the operators had an immediate comment in the Reuters copy. [1] Two loaded VLCCs taking unknown projectiles on the Omani corridor is the overnight record Tuesday markets priced. It is not a restored waterway. Owners still decide, Belcher said, voyage by voyage. A TSS without mines is a cleared lane. A corridor that takes projectiles is still a corridor.
-- YOSEF STERN, Jerusalem