Two oil tankers were attacked within minutes of each other while passing through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, a reflection of the continued risk for ships seeking to export oil from the Persian Gulf.
One ship, a crude oil tanker owned by Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, was struck by “unknown projectiles” about 16 nautical miles off the coast of Oman, according to Marisks, a maritime risk firm. A second ship, a Liberian-flagged supertanker operated by the South Korean company Sinokor, was reportedly struck by “three unknown projectiles” off the coast of Oman. The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations center, which is run by Britain’s Royal Navy, reported an incident on Monday in the same location. No casualties or environmental impact were reported, the agency said.
On Tuesday, U.S. forces retaliated by striking Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps targets. “The strikes follow recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members deployed to the region,” U.S. Central Command said on social media.
Oil prices jumped and were up more than 4 percent. On Monday, the United States and Iran had exchanged attacks for the first time in a month, raising fears among traders, who pushed the global benchmark for crude back above $90 a barrel, after a sharp fall last week.
The threat to commercial shipping in the strait was both high and “increasingly unpredictable,” Marisks said. It was advising ships to delay nonessential transits until the scale of the U.S. attacks and Iran’s potential response became clearer.
Dimitris Maniatis, the founder and chief executive of Marisks, said Iran was targeting vessels in the Persian Gulf not at random, but because of their affiliations to the United States and allies. Even if ships are not directly owned by U.S. companies, any ships with links to the United States are at higher risk.
Saudi-linked ships may also face additional risk, Marisks said.
“Everybody says the situation is deteriorating and getting worse,” Mr. Maniatis said. “But it’s not getting worse; it’s a repetition of the same thing.” Iran has carried out fewer attacks on Gulf neighbors recently and has lashed out at vessels instead, he said.
Shipping in the Strait of Hormuz has been mostly at a standstill in recent months. Five ships passed through the strait on Monday, the lowest level since early May. Before the war, more than 130 ships a day transited the vital waterway between Iran and Oman, which carried one-fifth of the world’s oil and a large amount of gas.
The U.S. Navy, which is blockading Iranian oil at sea from exiting the region, is also helping ships navigate the southern route near Oman. Iran has for months taken near total control of deciding which ships pass through the strait close to its coastline. It was not immediately clear if the ships that were attacked on Monday had been receiving help from U.S. forces.
The Trump administration has sought to play down the disruption to oil exports from the Persian Gulf. The U.S. energy secretary, Chris Wright, said last month that eight million barrels of oil a day were being exported, though many independent analysts have said the number is lower. Before March, nearly 15 million barrels of oil a day were sent through the strait.
Many shipping companies say the situation is too dangerous to resume regular trade in the region. The latest attacks on Monday night were at least the ninth to have taken place in the past month, and there have been more than 72 attacks on ships since March, according to the International Maritime Organization, a U.N. agency. At least 19 sailors have been killed.
On Saturday, a tanker was hit off the coast of Oman, according to the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations center. The ship was struck by an unknown projectile while transiting inbound in the Strait of Hormuz, though no casualties were reported, the agency said.
