As the US-Iran war spreads, more tankers are attacked.
As the U.S. - Iran war escalated on Thursday, Iranian drones invaded Azerbaijan and threatened to spread the crisis?to other oil producers in this region.
Initial assessments indicate that a?Bahamas flagged crude oil tanker anchored near Iraq’s Khor al Zubair Port was attacked by an Iranian remote-controlled boat loaded with explosives. After a large explosion, a second tanker anchored off Kuwait began to take on water and was spilling oil.
Since the conflict between the U.S. and Israel broke out on Saturday, nine vessels have been attacked. Iran fired a barrage of missiles on Israel in the early hours of Thursday morning and sent drones to Azerbaijan. Four people were injured. The move comes after Washington blocked a motion that would have stopped the U.S. attack and the son of Iran’s now-deceased supreme leader was a leading candidate to succeed him. This suggests Tehran is not going to give in to the pressure.
MarineTraffic data on tracking of ships indicates that around 200 vessels, including cargo ships and oil tankers, were anchored in open water off the coasts of Gulf producers.
Shipping data revealed that hundreds of other vessels were unable to reach port due to the Strait of Hormuz. Around a fifth of?the world's oil supply and LNG is transported through the waterway.
According to Iraqi oil sources, BP evacuated its foreign staff from the Rumaila oilfield in Iraq after two unidentified aircraft landed on site. Baghdad's oil production has been cut by almost 1.5 million barrels per day due to a lack of storage space and the inability to load tankers.
OIL PRICES JUMP AGAIN
The oil prices continued their upward trend on Thursday, rising around 3%. Since the start of the war on Saturday, oil prices have risen by more than 14% as U.S. and Israeli strikes on 'Iran' disrupted Middle East supply.
The benchmark European gas rate rose over 5% to 51.30 Euros per Megawatt-hour on Thursday. The price has risen by around 50% in the last week.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, said that Russia can stop gas supplies to Europe immediately due to the rise in energy prices caused by the Iran crisis.
Qatar, which supplies 20% of?the world's LNG, stopped gas production earlier this week because of the conflict. According to industry analysts and calculations, other major producers like the U.S. or Australia do not have enough spare capacity to compensate for this loss of supply.
Due to the Iran conflict, and disruptions in LNG supplies, the EU's task for filling up its gas storage has become more risky and expensive. The EU still imports gas from Russia. It plans to stop pipeline supplies by late 2027, and ban short-term LNG contracts from late April 2026.
The Middle East supply disruptions put Asian importers under even more pressure. China has asked refiners to not sign any new contracts for fuel exports and to cancel existing shipments, according to several sources with knowledge on the matter.
(source: Reuters)
