Shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz remains sparse, with two more vessels coming under attack near the waterway on Saturday.
A tanker was struck by a projectile about 20km north-east of Lima, Oman, causing damage to its engine room, the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency said. There were "no reported casualties or environmental impact" from the incident, it added.
The agency advised vessels to sail with caution in the strait, through which about a fifth of global crude oil and natural gas supplies flowed before the Iran war began in February.
The UKMTO also reported an incident 40km north-east of Khasab in Oman. The master of a tanker saw a large splash and an explosion near the vessel, but no damage was reported, the agency said.
The latest attacks come as shipping traffic in the strait remains low amid tensions between the US and Iran. Only ten commodity vessels transited on Friday, the latest data from analytics company Kpler showed.
Seven of those ships exited the strait and three sailed in the opposite direction. They were travelling to destinations including Iran, Pakistan, the UAE and China – the majority of those ships sailed on the route demanded by Iran. Two vessels switched off their transponders to avoid being detected.
Iranian attacks in the waterway have caused traffic to drop sharply. Seven commodity vessels passed through the strait on Monday, while 11 transited on Tuesday, 15 sailed on Wednesday and four crossed the waterway on Thursday.
More than 100 vessels used to transit the strait every day before the war broke out on February 28. That number fell in the early days of the conflict, but improved after a 60-day ceasefire was agreed to on June 17.
However, fighting resumed last month, leading to a drop in traffic again, as ship owners avoid the strait.
The US Central Command said the waterway was open for commercial vessels and that thousands of ships had sailed through it over the past four months.
“The Iranian government claims it has closed the Strait of Hormuz. This is False,” Centcom said in a post on X. It added that, as of July 31, it had rerouted 30 commercial vessels, disabled two ships and boarded two others to verify full compliance with the US naval blockade on Iran.
American forces resumed the blockade of Iranian ports and coastal areas on July 14, in response to attacks in the strait.
Bab Al Mandeb traffic
Meanwhile, maritime traffic in the Bab Al Mandeb strait, the gateway to the Red Sea, increased slightly, with 31 commodity vessels transiting on Friday, up from 29 a day before, Kpler data showed.
The number of ships plunged after Yemen's Houthi rebels declared an "embargo" on Saudi shipping on July 20, with only 16 commodity vessels transiting the waterway on July 26 – the lowest tally for the week.
The Iran-backed Houthis also claimed attacks on Aramco sites in the Saudi cities of Jizan and Yanbu last week, which led the kingdom to divert traffic to the Suez Canal to transport crude to global markets.
“With US and Iranian public positions still at odds, operators are closely monitoring traffic volumes, routing behaviour and any diplomatic developments that could reshape risk across regional shipping lanes in the days ahead,” Kpler said.
