Tanker Struck by Missiles North of Qatar as Gulf Tanker War Widens

Britain's maritime trade agency says a tanker was struck by multiple projectiles about fifty-one nautical miles north of Qatar yesterday evening, and casualties were reported. The vessel's identity has not been released, and no one has claimed the attack. It is the first strike of this phase of the war in the central Arabian Gulf proper, well beyond the Strait of Hormuz and the Omani corridor where the earlier attacks happened.

The strike came on a day of fresh violence at sea. Maritime outlets report Iran's Revolutionary Guard fired on at least two ships in the Strait of Hormuz yesterday, including a Liberia-flagged container vessel approached by an Iranian gunboat. This followed President Trump's decision to extend the ceasefire, with restrictions staying in place until negotiations conclude, while Iran says it will not reopen the strait while the American blockade continues.

Washington is leaning on the blockade. U.S. Central Command said Monday it had redirected its one hundred thirtieth commercial vessel since resuming the naval blockade of Iranian ports in July, and has disabled three ships and destroyed thirteen more over the past twelve weeks. TradeWinds counts thirteen commercial vessels hit since the twenty-ninth of September, with nine attacks already this month, half of September's full-month total.

The human cost is mounting too. On the Panama-flagged tanker On Peace, struck on Sunday, twelve crew members were injured, eleven of them Indian, and they were evacuated to Khasab in Oman. India's foreign ministry has now formally condemned the attack. On the Greek LNG carrier Maran Gas Mystras, an engine-room fire broke out as it exited the strait; all thirty crew members, eleven of them Greek, are safe, and the ship is making for Fujairah under its own power.

Oil moved fast. Brent settled up three percent at one hundred one dollars and forty-seven cents, and West Texas Intermediate also rose three percent, to ninety-two dollars and ninety-six cents. The Group of Seven's release of one hundred million barrels from reserves over four months is now being implemented, with diesel front-loaded into the first twenty days, but Brent is still holding above one hundred one dollars. Saudi Arabia has ramped its East-West pipeline to about five point eight million barrels a day to bypass the strait, though Aramco cut its official selling prices for Asian customers on Monday.

From the October 8 episode of The World Briefing Room.