Unknown projectile disables tanker in Hormuz as 492 ships wait outside the strait

Key Facts

The UK Maritime Trade Operations reported that an unknown projectile struck and disabled an oil tanker as it was outbound from the Strait of Hormuz on October 23, 2026. The agency said the crew was safe, while its published notice included no assessment of damage or environmental impact. The notice came after the date of the incident and did not identify the vessel. In a separate incident, the agency reported a vessel on fire about 63 nautical miles southeast of Al Faw, Iraq. The report was classified as suspicious activity, while the cause of the fire remained undetermined, and sources did not link the two incidents.

The tanker’s disablement coincided with a large gathering of vessels outside the strait; the Joint Maritime Information Center estimated that about 492 ships were waiting on October 25. The figures cited in the report show 194 vessels positioned near Fujairah and Khor Fakkan, and 178 off Dubai. Another 55 vessels gathered near Musandam and Sohar, and 32 off Bandar Abbas and Qeshm. The vessels were spread across several areas along the strait’s entrances and exits, as shipping faced movement restrictions. The distribution provides a snapshot of the scale of the wait on the observation date, without specifying how long each vessel had been waiting or its destination.

The Joint Maritime Information Center recorded 101 U.S.-assisted transits between October 22 and 24. This figure covers a different time span from the historical average of about 138 ships a day during 2025: the former counts transits over three days with U.S. assistance, while the latter is a historical daily average. The figures therefore are not like-for-like daily measures for direct comparison. Gulf News said vessel traffic visible through the Automatic Identification System (AIS) remained in the single digits to low tens. That observation describes traffic visible on the system, while the transit figure refers to a specific category of recorded journeys during a defined period.

Maritime monitoring reports showed disruption to navigation signals in the region. Windward counted 293 vessels affected by jamming on October 21, along with 8,487 false encounters between vessels in the Gulf and Gulf of Oman. In its weekly report published on October 23, the UK Maritime Trade Operations said it had detected 18,049 anomalous Automatic Identification System (AIS) positions. The figures highlight the extent of disruption to positioning data used to track vessel movements. This coincided with reports of varying levels of waiting and transit activity in the waterways around Hormuz.

The Joint Maritime Information Center classified the risk level in the Strait of Hormuz as severe and said further deliberate attacks were “very likely.” The assessment comes amid the incident involving the tanker struck by a projectile, as well as the fire report whose cause remained unknown, while hundreds of vessels wait outside the passage. EL7 previously published two stories about tankers in the strait, one on October 1 about three tankers and another on October 2 about one tanker. On alternative shipping routes, Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser said in remarks reported by Associated Press that capacity on the East-West pipeline had increased from 2 million barrels a day to 7 million, via a route that bypasses Hormuz. In earlier coverage, Associated Press, citing Lloyd’s List Intelligence, reported that some tankers were transiting at night through a militarily protected corridor near Oman’s coast with positioning systems and phones switched off, before transferring oil to other tankers in the Gulf of Oman for shipment to Asia.

Against the backdrop of security risks, Associated Press reported that Iranian television said seven tankers were damaged or caught fire during the night of October 21 to 22, but noted that the extent of the damage had not been independently confirmed. That account is attributed to Iranian television and does not resolve details of the tanker incident announced by the UK agency on October 23. The UK notice included no assessment of damage or environmental impact, and the vessel’s name was not announced. The fire report near Al Faw remained classified as suspicious activity, with no cause identified. The center’s assessment that further attacks are likely places these incidents within a severe risk level for shipping in the strait.