A tanker was struck by an unknown projectile about 68 nautical miles northeast of Al Jubail on Saudi Arabia’s Gulf coast on Friday, October 16, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Saturday.
All crew members were reported safe and had been evacuated. No environmental impact had been reported, UKMTO said.
The incident took place at 0900 GMT on Friday and was reported by the company security officer, according to UKMTO’s warning. The agency called it a time-late report and said authorities were investigating.
UKMTO did not name the vessel, its owner or its cargo, or say where the projectile came from.
Most attacks logged by UKMTO this month have taken place inside the Strait of Hormuz. It also reported a tanker struck by multiple projectiles 51 nautical miles north of Madinat ash Shamal in Qatar on October 7, and a vessel hit 13 nautical miles west of Al Jazeera in the UAE on October 9.
In its weekly overview dated October 16, UKMTO said 12 attacks were reported to it in the latest week. Ten were in the Strait of Hormuz, one in the Arabian Gulf and one in the Gulf of Oman.
The agency said it was struggling to report the true number of attacks because most vessels that were attacked refused to report to it. It said it was aware of other incidents through other sources but could not report them without verification.
Combined transits through the Strait of Hormuz were 125 outbound and 129 inbound over the week, down from 129 and 146 the week before, UKMTO said. It put traffic at about 70% below pre-conflict levels.
Only 42 of those transits were observed through ship-tracking data, down from 60. The rest were transits the United States said it had facilitated. The US Joint Maritime Information Center reported that 80% of transits through the strait were by energy carriers, according to the overview.
Two container ships, of 50,000 tonnes and 19,000 tonnes, were also struck by unknown projectiles in the strait in incidents UKMTO reported on October 14. Both had minor damage and no casualties and continued their voyages.
