The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency said on Wednesday that an oil tanker was hit by several projectiles in an incident 51 nautical miles north of Qatar’s Al Shamal, noting reports of injuries. The agency said authorities had begun investigating the circumstances of the incident, without identifying the tanker’s nationality.
Security concerns weigh on energy routes
The incident took place in an area linked to oil and gas transport, as security concerns and uncertainty continue to cast a shadow over navigation and energy shipments passing through the region’s maritime routes, particularly the Strait of Hormuz.
In the context of maritime shipping activity, data released by specialised analytics companies showed that the number of liquefied natural gas shipments passing through the Strait of Hormuz rose in September to its highest monthly level since the outbreak of the US-Israeli war on Iran, despite continuing concerns over security conditions.
The difference between the two figures reflects a discrepancy between the analytics companies’ data on total recorded shipment activity in September. Eric Yep, a senior analyst at S&P Global, said September’s total compared with 15 shipments that crossed the Strait in June, the month in which an agreement between the United States and Iran began to take effect.
Yep said the movement of liquefied natural gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz accelerated during the second half of September. He added: “If this trend continues through October, we may see total monthly crossings recover to 25% of pre-war levels.”
