Oil tankers hit in Strait of Hormuz as Oman rescues 25 crew from burning vessel
Oman says its navy rescued 25 crew from a Panama-flagged ship set ablaze in the Strait of Hormuz, as Iran reports several tankers halted or damaged on an unauthorised route and the US disputes the mine claims.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which about a fifth of the world's oil normally moves, became the focus of a fast-moving and still disputed series of shipping incidents on Friday, as Iran said several tankers had been halted or damaged while trying to use a route it calls unauthorised, and Oman said its navy had rescued 25 sailors from a merchant ship that had been targeted and set on fire.
Oman's Maritime Security Centre said the Royal Navy of Oman evacuated the crew of the Panama-flagged merchant ship RITI after a fire broke out on board. The crew members were given medical care, according to the Omani statement, which did not give further details of their condition. The ship-tracking site MarineTraffic described the RITI as a crude oil tanker, and Omani officials placed the incident off the coast of Musandam, the Omani governorate that borders the strait.
Separately, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said two oil tankers that were trying to pass through what it described as an unauthorised route had encountered incidents and been brought to a halt in waters south of the strait after ignoring radio warnings. The Guards said the vessels had switched off their navigation and positioning systems and were attempting to leave through the southern corridor, closer to Oman's shores, with what it called the support of the United States military.
In a later statement, the IRGC said a third vessel, a supertanker carrying two million barrels of oil, had exploded and caught fire after striking a naval mine while navigating the same unauthorised route. It described that vessel as the third tanker to have exploded and caught fire on Friday while attempting to pass through the route. Iranian authorities did not name the ships, their operators or their flag states, and gave no information about the crews of the vessels it said had been halted.
Those claims have not been independently confirmed, and they were disputed by the United States. US Central Command rejected the suggestion that commercial vessels were striking naval mines, saying American forces had cleared all internationally recognised primary transit routes through the strait. The commander of US Central Command said the main shipping lanes had been cleared of Iranian mines and that vessels were moving freely through the waterway.
A separate incident, reported by Reuters and Britain's maritime security agency, involved the Panama-flagged tanker Louise 1. Maritime security sources told Reuters that a small boat attached two limpet mines to the hull of the tanker, causing explosions that set fire to its engine room and temporarily disabled the vessel. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said the incident happened on Thursday about 46 kilometres north-east of Khasab in Oman, that the crew was safe, that the fire had been extinguished, and that there had been no environmental impact.
Reports citing Reuters said the Louise 1 was carrying 27 Indian crew members, all of whom were reported safe, and that the vessel later resumed its voyage. The incident was described as the first successful use of limpet mines against a vessel in the strait since the conflict between the United States and Iran began in February. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, and the vessel's operator could not immediately be reached for comment.
The incidents come against the background of a war that began on 28 February with US and Israeli strikes on Iran, after which Tehran restricted traffic through the strait and demanded that vessels use a designated route and coordinate their passage with its armed forces. Ships have repeatedly come under attack in and around the waterway since then, and the strait's security has become one of the most sensitive questions in the wider regional conflict, because any sustained disruption there would affect oil supplies far beyond the Middle East.
The market reaction was immediate. Reports on Saturday morning said Brent crude had climbed by more than two dollars, or about two per cent, to about $117 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate rose by close to two per cent to about $104 a barrel, as traders priced in the risk of further disruption to tanker traffic. Energy analysts cautioned that prices could swing sharply again if further incidents are reported or if shipping companies decide to pause transits through the strait.
Diplomacy continued in parallel with the incidents at sea. A Qatari delegation arrived in Tehran on Friday for talks with senior Iranian officials, as mediators pressed efforts to revive negotiations between Washington and Tehran, while US President Donald Trump said the war was going to get wrapped up soon and that Washington needed a guarantee that Iran would never obtain a nuclear weapon. For now, however, the competing accounts of what happened in the strait — Iran's mine claims, Washington's denial, and Oman's confirmed rescue — leave the full picture unclear, and shipping operators, insurers and governments in the region will be watching the next transits closely for signs of whether Friday's incidents were isolated or the start of a wider escalation at sea.
