Hormuz Shipping Risk Climbs as Tanker Burns Off Oman

United States Central Command (CENTCOM) disabled the oil tanker M/T Settebello in the Gulf of Oman on June 10, firing precision munitions at the vessel's engine room about 20 nautical miles northeast of Sohar, Oman. CENTCOM said the crew had repeatedly failed to comply with directions from American forces, and that the ship was carrying oil from Iran. Three Indian crew members were reported missing and 21 were rescued, The Hill reported. India's Foreign Ministry condemned the strike and summoned a United States diplomat, saying the targeting of commercial shipping and civilian infrastructure must end, according to India TV News.

In a separate incident, one crew member was killed and two more were reported missing after a fire broke out aboard a tanker off the coast of Oman, citing the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), TASS reported. The incident occurred in waters adjacent to the Strait of Hormuz, the passage that carries roughly a fifth of the world's seaborne oil.

The casualties come as Oman, long a quiet mediator between Washington and Tehran, finds itself at odds with the Trump administration and some of its neighbors as the war continues, according to The New York Times. The sultanate has hosted talks with Iran for years, and its discomfort with the current escalation illustrates how the conflict is straining even neutral actors in the Gulf.

Oil prices and the operational status of the strait remained a central concern for traders tracking the war, The Hindu reported. Every incident in or near the strait raises insurance and freight costs for cargoes that must transit the waterway, a cost that passes through to refined products and, eventually, to consumers far from the conflict.

The combination of a United States strike on a tanker, a separate burning vessel, contested airspace and a stressed mediator points to a security environment in which the cost of moving energy is rising, and in which the United States is now directly interdicting cargoes of Iranian oil rather than merely threatening the strait.