Tankers Reportedly Ablaze Near Strait of Hormuz

Three tankers are reportedly on fire in the Gulf of Oman, according to social media posts, as cited by the Hindustan Times.Kpler energy analyst Amena Bakr said on X that a British maritime security provider had reported it was aware of an unspecified incident in the area.An outlet for shipping news published a YouTube video saying two tankers had collided in the Gulf of Oman.An X account named OSINTDefender reported that “It appears that the fires seen off the coast of Iran in the Gulf of Oman may have been caused by the collision of two oil tankers, the Antigua Barbuda-flagged ADALYNN and the Liberian-flagged FRONT EAGLE. Though ship tracking suggests this likely happened over three hours ago, which does not explain why there had been no reports until the picture showing the fires and the statement by Ambrey [the British maritime security firm].”The Strait of Hormuz is currently attracting a lot of attention amid the war between Israel and Iran, and the fact Iran has threatened in the past to close the chokepoint in case of hostilities against it.The chokepoint handles more than 20 million barrels daily in oil trade, with the bulk of Middle Eastern oil—and Qatari LNG—passing through it en route to international markets.Israel and Iran continued firing missiles at each other for the fifth day in a row with both sides apparently unwilling to end the hostilities. European foreign ministers earlier this week urged the Iranian foreign minister to restart nuclear negotiations with the U.S. and de-escalate, to which Abbas Araqchi responded that Tehran’s priority right now was retaliating against Israel, which attacked Iran on Friday.President Trump also called on the Iranians to cease hostilities, saying on his social network Truth Social that Tehran should evacuate.By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com