Tankers reverse course in Strait of Hormuz after ships struck

com reported. Three empty LNG carriers en route to Qatar’s Ras Laffan facility turned away late on Tuesday, July 7. A fully-laden India-flagged supertanker carrying 2 million barrels of crude from Kuwait also reversed course off the tip of Oman.

Iranian attacks on Tuesday struck three commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, including an oil tanker and an LNG carrier, OilPrice.com reported. A Marshall Islands-flagged Qatari LNG carrier and a Saudi-owned supertanker were hit while running dark. The renewed hostilities put an abrupt end to the steady flow of oil and gas tankers moving in and out of the Persian Gulf.

Six vessels were rerouted from the southern corridor to the central corridor in immediate response, Windward said. One LNG tanker carrying approximately 902,200 barrels of cargo halted its transit and anchored midway in the Strait. “The Strait of Hormuz is functionally contested again,” the maritime intelligence firm stated.

The Strait of Hormuz has seen an uptick in traffic in recent weeks as more vessels moved out carrying cargoes to buyers, OilPrice.com reported. Inbound traffic of empty tankers has increased as Gulf oil and gas producers race to move commodities out of the Middle East to restart production shut in as early as March.