Two Tankers Attacked on Midnight Run Through Hormuz

Two tankers carrying Saudi oil were hit by rockets and other munitions within minutes of each other while trying to make a midnight crossing of the Strait of Hormuz, maritime security firms said.

Vanguard said a Liberian-flagged tanker was hit by three rockets off the coast of Oman. Eight minutes earlier, a Saudi-flagged vessel also took multiple hits, Marisks said.

Both were traveling through the southern reaches of the strait along a corridor the U.S. has set up to break Iran’s chokehold of the waterway. Iran began attacking ships in the corridor just weeks after signing a preliminary deal with the U.S. in mid-June to reopen the strait.

“The near-simultaneous incidents represent a further escalation in the threat environment within the Omani corridor,” Marisks said. “The incidents also further undermine any assumption that the Omani corridor represents a reliably protected or lower-risk passage.”

The targeted vessels, Liberian-flagged Senegal Prosperity and Saudi-flagged Sidr, both loaded 2 million barrels of crude from the Saudi port of Juaymah near Ras Tanura a few days ago, according to commodities-data provider Kpler.

No one claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Iran has been firing regularly at ships to assert its hold on the waterway, a crucial conduit for energy exports, which Tehran has crimped since the beginning of the war.

The attacks around midnight came after the U.S. struck what it said were Iranian launchers preparing to fire rocket-deploying mines toward the strait the night before. The U.S. said last week that Navy SEALs backed by other forces had successfully demined the waterway, part of an effort to get more ships past the Iranian chokehold.

The U.S. says it is shepherding several ships a day through the strait to help ease pressure on global oil supplies. The ships typically cross at night with their transponders off to make them hard to track.

Iran is continuing to strike ships nonetheless. It hit a Kuwaiti tanker last week, among more than a dozen fired at during August.

The Liberia-flagged Senegal Prosperity is managed by a unit of Sinokor Maritime of South Korea, according to its safety-certification provider, Bureau Veritas. The Saudi-flagged Sidr is owned and operated by the national shipping carrier of Saudi Arabia, Bahri, according to the company’s website.

Sinokor and Bahri didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

President Trump told reporters Monday that the U.S. had been helping an average of 30 ships a night get through the Strait of Hormuz and that the waterway was open.

“A lot of oil is coming out,” he said. “That’s why you haven’t seen the price of oil go like they thought it might have to go.”

Independent ship trackers generally haven’t been able to verify the U.S. claims.

Only nine commodities vessels crossed the waterway Monday and two so far Tuesday, according to preliminary data from Kpler. By comparison, transits averaged 31 late June after the U.S. and Iran clinched a preliminary peace deal and 99 in the 10 days before the war.

International oil benchmark Brent climbed more than 2% on Tuesday to top $92 a barrel.