Tanker attack in Hormuz injures 12 crew, India says

A projectile hit the Panama-flagged oil tanker On Peace in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, injuring 12 of its 19 crew members, India's foreign ministry said. The strike came as Iran steps up attacks on shipping through the waterway, even though oil shipments are nearing prewar levels.bloomberg+1

Eleven of the injured sailors are Indian. Seventeen Indians were aboard the Aframax-sized tanker in total. "With the assistance of Omani authorities, the injured crew have since been evacuated and are receiving medical treatment in Khasab, Oman," the ministry said. It did not say who carried out the attack. Oman's defense ministry said the vessel was struck nine nautical miles northeast of Lima in Musandam Governorate. According to gCaptain, the On Peace is on a blacklist kept by Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Authority, which accuses the vessels it lists of breaking Iranian transit rules.reuters+2

A rising tempo of strikes

United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations has reported nine attacks in the strait so far in October. That is half of what it recorded for all of September across Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, Bloomberg reported. On Oct. 1 the Kuwaiti-flagged supertanker Kazimah III caught fire after being hit, and on Oct. 4 the tanker Lipsi took damage to its engine room. On Monday, Iran's Revolutionary Guard ordered a tanker to turn around or face attack, and the ship turned back.cnbc+2

The Joint Maritime Information Center says nearly 20 commercial ships have been attacked in the region over the past month. The International Maritime Organization reports that since July at least nine sailors have died, 18 have been injured and three are missing.cnbc

Flows recover, at a cost

Kpler data show Middle East crude exports reached a seven-day average of 18.3 million barrels per day on Sept. 30, above the prewar average of about 18 million. Kpler estimates that about 40% of those exports now bypass Hormuz, largely through Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline to the Red Sea. Much of the oil that does cross the strait is moved between ships offshore. Exports through Hormuz itself averaged about 10.3 million barrels per day last week, 23% below the prewar baseline, according to Kpler.aljazeera+1

The flow depends on U.S. forces guarding a southern route along Oman's coast. Shipping a tanker of crude from the Gulf to China now costs about $1 million a day. Brent crude is still trading near $100 a barrel. Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said Monday that about 3 billion barrels of supply have been lost since the war began in late February, and that rebuilding inventories could take up to two years.cnbc+1

"Nobody in Washington thinks this is sustainable financially," said Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy. Richard Meade, editor in chief of Lloyd's List, put it this way: "The oil market is not becoming more secure. It is becoming more efficient at operating under sustained insecurity."cnbc