Iran and US shipping attacks intensify, push oil above US$100

Iran said it attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz on September 9 after US forces sank five Iranian oil tankers, in the biggest wave of attacks on shipping by both sides since the war began six months ago.

At least one seafarer was reported killed and another was missing. Brent crude futures rose above US$100 a barrel for the first time since July as the attacks threatened already restricted oil shipments through the region.

The escalation followed a month of relative calm during which Washington had sought to put economic pressure on Tehran.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) threatened a sharply stronger response to any further attacks. It also announced plans to publish maps of an expanded maritime exclusion zone extending as far as Chabahar, on Iran’s coast near Pakistan.

Tankers struck across Gulf waters

The US military said it destroyed five Iranian oil tankers overnight and released footage showing ships burning before sinking. US Central Command described the strikes as retaliation for two Iranian ballistic missile attacks on a US Navy warship, which Washington said caused no American casualties.

Footage released by Central Command on September 8 identified one of the stricken crude carriers as M/T Riesco and gave its location as the Gulf of Oman.

Washington has adopted a policy of targeting Iranian tankers in response to fire threatening American warships. It said it had struck 10 tankers over the preceding week.

“Iran continues to try to hit U.S. naval ships, and for every time they do that or try to do that, they’re going to lose tankers,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters during a visit to Colombia.

Iran reported firing on two US ships and eight tankers in retaliation.

Peninsula, the charterer of the oil products tanker Hercules Star, reported that one seafarer was killed and another crew member was missing after an incident while the vessel was anchored off Dubai.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency separately described a nearby vessel listing after being hit by a projectile. 

In Iraqi waters, the New Andros, carrying 2 million barrels of fuel oil, caught fire after a drone strike, according to two Iraqi port officials. There were no reports of casualties among the 22 crew members.
 

UKMTO also received reports of several merchant vessels hit by disabling fire in the northern Gulf and Gulf of Oman, on either side of the Strait of Hormuz. A maritime security source reported damage to a liquefied natural gas tanker at Khor Fakkan in the United Arab Emirates.

Late on September 9, Iran’s Fars news agency reported that an explosion coming from the sea had been heard in the southern part of the Iranian port city of Jask. The agency had no details about its cause or source.

Missiles fired towards US base in Jordan

Iran also announced that it had launched ballistic missiles at a US military base in Jordan. Jordan reported intercepting 18 missiles, with two others landing harmlessly in unpopulated areas. A US official confirmed that all American troops were accounted for.

President Donald Trump accused Tehran of trying to influence the November US midterm elections, which will determine whether Republicans retain control of Congress.

“I think war is going to end immediately after the election because they can’t hold out any longer. They’re desperate to try and affect the election,” Trump told reporters.

The Wall Street Journal later reported that senior White House advisers, including Vice President JD Vance and Rubio, had privately warned Trump that the conflict could last through the remainder of his presidency, which ends in January 2029. 

Fighting between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthis has also intensified in recent days, opening another source of risk to Middle Eastern energy supplies.

Hormuz oil flows fall sharply

Before the war, the Strait of Hormuz carried a fifth of global oil supplies. Washington had recently pointed to growing success in escorting tankers through the waterway, but renewed fighting appears to have reversed progress towards a gradual reopening.

Claudio Galimberti, chief economist at consultancy Rystad Energy, estimated that flows through Hormuz had fallen as low as 2 million barrels a day. They had reached 8 million to 9 million barrels a day in the week before fighting resumed on August 30.

Prices for refined fuels have risen even more sharply than crude. The average US retail diesel price reached a record above US$5.94 a gallon on September 9.