A vessel operated by ADNOC Logistics and Services was damaged in an attack inside the United Arab Emirates' territorial waters in the Arabian Gulf on Tuesday afternoon, the company has confirmed, in the latest incident to unsettle shipping across the region.
The confirmation came in a statement carried by the Emirates News Agency, WAM, on Tuesday evening. ADNOC Logistics and Services said response efforts by the relevant teams were under way and that further updates would be provided as more information became available. The company asked the public to rely only on official sources and to avoid circulating rumours or unverified claims.
Very little detail has been released about the incident so far. The company has not named the vessel, described its cargo, said how serious the damage is, or given any information about the crew on board. It has not said what weapon was used, or who carried out the attack.
The UAE's Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the attack in a statement issued after the announcement, describing it as an assault on a commercial vessel inside the country's waters. No further official comment on the circumstances of the attack had been issued by Wednesday morning.
The incident comes only days after the Qatar Gas Transport Company, Nakilat, reported that its vessel Al Maayeda had been attacked by unidentified objects while sailing in the Arabian Gulf on 30 October. It also follows a series of attacks on ADNOC vessels earlier this year, and an incident earlier this month in which the UAE rescued 22 crew members from a burning cargo ship.
Maritime security analysts note that Tuesday's attack stands out because it happened inside the UAE's territorial waters, rather than in the contested approaches to the Strait of Hormuz itself. The distinction matters: an attack inside a state's own waters is a direct challenge to that state's control of its maritime territory, and it raises the stakes for shipping companies operating in the Gulf.
Separately, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre logged a separate incident on Tuesday, reporting that a tanker had been struck by an unidentified projectile at 13:38 UTC, about 19 nautical miles north-east of Lima in Oman, near the Strait of Hormuz. The centre said the tanker's crew was safe and that there was no environmental impact reported, and that its master would assess the damage at first light.
It has not been established whether the two reports concern the same vessel. Neither the company nor the maritime authorities have identified the affected ship, and without a vessel name, exact coordinates or a matching incident report, the two notices cannot responsibly be counted as one attack or two. The possibility that they are separate incidents would point to a wider pattern of attacks on commercial shipping in the region.
The attack also comes against a tense regional backdrop. Earlier this week, Iran said oil tankers had caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz after explosions and a mine strike, and shipping through the world's most important oil chokepoint has been under close watch for months as tensions between Iran and the United States have risen and fallen.
For the UAE, a major energy exporter and the home of one of the world's busiest shipping hubs, the security of its waters is a central concern. ADNOC Logistics and Services is the shipping and maritime logistics arm of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, and it operates a fleet of commercial ships and vessels supporting the energy industry across the Gulf and beyond.
What happens next will depend on what ADNOC and the UAE authorities release in the coming days. The company has promised further updates, and investigators will be working to establish the identity of the vessel, the extent of the damage, the safety of the crew and, above all, who was responsible. Until then, shipping companies and insurers will be watching the Gulf closely, and the incident is likely to add to the pressure on regional governments to step up protection for commercial vessels.
