LNG carrier disabled off Oman as Hormuz threats multiply
Merchant shipping remains exposed at both ends of the Strait of Hormuz, with fresh threats and explosions reported even as Washington claims another round of negotiations with Iran is getting underway. The Bermuda-flagged LNG carrier GasLog Shanghai was struck in the area of her engine room by an unknown projectile at 2330 on Friday, at a position 11 nautical miles northeast of Limah. The vessel lost all power and was disabled, with no casualties reported among the crew. She was heading south on the Omani coastal route, laden with Qatari LNG loaded at Ras Laffan.
An earlier incident the same evening involved a Liberian-flagged tanker whose master reported the impact of a missile or drone five metres off the starboard side while proceeding westwards in the Omani coastal channel. There was no damage and no casualties, and the vessel continued on course. Two further Liberian-flagged tankers were affected over the following days. The Egypt Prosperity received VHF threats at 2037 UTC on Sunday from a party claiming affiliation with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, 20 nautical miles northeast of Khasab, and reported a loud explosion at a distance before altering course for the Dubai outer port limits. The On Pride reported warning shots and an explosion 1.5 nautical miles off her port quarter.
Traffic through the strait is down on both the Iranian northern route and the Omani coastal route, on which vessels can receive military guidance from the US Navy, and the reduced flow has curtailed loadings inside the Gulf. The Houthis, meanwhile, say passage remains free through what they call their Safe Transit Service, a claim that sits awkwardly alongside the pattern of incidents.
Attention is turning to routes that bypass the strait entirely. Saudi Arabia is weighing an expansion of its East-West pipeline of up to 2m barrels a day, and a line to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates has been proposed at 3.6m barrels a day. The Iraq-Turkey route, restarted late in 2025, has struggled to move beyond 200,000 barrels a day. None of these can be built at the speed the current disruption demands, which leaves the sea route as the only practical option for the volumes involved.
Reporting has also clarified the attack on the Egyptian terminal at Damietta on 29 July. The primary target now appears to have been the Bermuda-flagged floating storage and regasification unit GasLog Salem, struck on the starboard side near the number two forward cargo tanks, with the Marshall Islands-flagged LNG carrier Energos Winter likely hit by debris or affected by the spread of fire from the adjacent vessel.
