A supertanker carrying more than 2 million barrels of oil and two other fuel ships exploded Friday when they struck mines in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran claimed.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said the supertanker burst into flames when it hit a naval mine while using an “unauthorized” route in the crucial waterway.
It was the third fuel tanker to strike a mine in the same day while using an illegal route in the strait — with the two other vessels exploding after switching off their navigation signals and ignoring repeated radio warnings, the Iranian guard’s navy said.
Iran did not identify the ships or where they were from, nor provide details about the fate of their crews or who exactly had laid the mines.
The claims involving the damaged tankers could not be verified. The US said it has cleared all internationally recognized, primary transit routes in the strait of mines.
The reported development came as Saudi Arabia said it shot down a drone near Mecca that had been launched by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels. The Houthis denied the near-hit on Islam’s holiest site.
The news meanwhile occurred as oil prices surged Friday to their highest levels since the end of April.
Oil prices could turn even more volatile over the next couple of weeks with Israel’s recent elections and the US midterm elections Nov. 3, according to a Saxo Bank briefing in Singapore.
Though it’s difficult to forecast prices, crude is expected to trade in a higher range of $70 to $90 a barrel even after the conflict ends, compared with a pre-war range of $60 to $70, Saxo Bank said.
“Continued kinetic action around the Strait of Hormuz amidst doubts of a viable diplomatic pathway is keeping oil prices elevated in expectation of an escalation of the conflict in coming weeks,” said Saul Kavonic, head of energy research at MST Marquee, to Reuters.
With Post Wires
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