More than 3,000 ships crossed Hormuz with US support amid rising maritime incidents
Key Facts
On October 26, UKMTO reported third-party accounts of a vessel on fire 63 nautical miles southeast of Al Faw, Iraq, in the latest documented maritime incident near regional oil-export routes. At the time of the alert, no information was available on the crew’s condition, the extent of the damage or the environmental impact. The reporting party did not identify the cause of the fire or who was responsible. The alert followed another incident in the Strait of Hormuz, where UKMTO said a tanker was struck by an unidentified projectile while outbound on October 23. The tanker was disabled, but its crew was reported safe; an assessment of the damage or environmental impact was unavailable.
Incident reports point to widening risks facing commercial shipping in October. The Associated Press cited UKMTO as saying the month had seen the highest number of reported attacks on commercial vessels since March, in the first weeks of the war. The agency warned that some shipping companies may hesitate to report incidents, making their scale harder to assess. The Associated Press said it was unable to independently verify Iran’s account.
Oil continues to move under more complex arrangements, according to the Associated Press, which reported that tankers carry oil at night through a US-protected corridor near the Omani coast, with their tracking systems and phones switched off. The tankers then transfer their cargoes to other vessels waiting in the Gulf of Oman, from where the shipments continue on to Asia. Ship-to-ship transfers take several days, the agency said. Spot tanker charter rates have also risen to hundreds of thousands of dollars a day. These costs stand out at a time when an average of 20.9 million barrels of oil a day passes through the Strait of Hormuz, equivalent to about 20% of global petroleum liquids consumption, according to first-half 2025 data cited by the US Energy Information Administration.
Oil prices surged in September, with the US Energy Information Administration saying the average spot price of Brent reached $114 a barrel, up $23 from August. The agency linked the rise to increased attacks on oil infrastructure and tankers in the Middle East. The daily price peaked at $131 a barrel on September 15, after alternative Saudi supply routes bypassing the Strait of Hormuz were temporarily disrupted. This reflects crude prices’ sensitivity to disruptions to transport and supply routes in the region. Available information does not provide a separate price estimate for the market’s response to the latest October incidents.
The head of US Central Command said more than 3,000 commercial ships had crossed the strait with US military support in the six months before his statement on October 25. On the same day, US President Donald Trump said he would not strike Iran that day, while the Central Command chief was flying over the strait. On the diplomatic track, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Tehran had not closed the door to diplomacy and that messages were being conveyed to the United States through mediators. He added that negotiations appeared to have been stalled for weeks. Iran says it is promoting a proposal to end the war and fully reopen the strait within a week, in return for meeting conditions that include ending the US blockade of Iranian ports.
A United Nations spokesman called for the passage to be reopened and tensions reduced, saying this was necessary for people in the region and the wider world. A senior Iranian official told Reuters on September 22 that Iran could reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days if the United States eased military pressure and lifted its blockade of Iranian ports. The Iranian proposal makes reopening the passage part of the conditions for ending the war, according to the Associated Press on October 22. The latest maritime incidents, including the fire near Al Faw, continue to be reported without responsibility being established. Available information contains no subsequent update on the vessel’s condition or assessment of environmental damage.