Oil tankers under attack in Red Sea, Strait of Hormuz and Black Sea

Oil tankers are increasingly coming under fire on several fronts as economic warfare is deployed as a weapon in the escalating conflicts in the Middle East and Europe.

Iran has stepped up its attacks on tankers in and around the Strait of Hormuz this month as it tries to impose its control over the crucial oil corridor. Tehran’s Houthi allies in Yemen opened a second front this week, firing on two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea after declaring a maritime embargo against Riyadh.

Ukraine, meanwhile, says it has attacked more than 150 tankers, cargo ships, and other vessels associated with Russia’s shadow fleet in the Sea of Azov and Black Sea, according to the Kyiv Post.

The oil market is now dealing with wars on multiple fronts, Helima Croft, head of global commodity strategy, told CNBC’s “Power Lunch” on Thursday. Oil prices have surged more than 30% in July with Brent crude breaking $100 per barrel on Thursday for the first time since May, as the security situation has rapidly deteriorated in the southern Red Sea and Hormuz.

Ship traffic through Hormuz has plunged after rebounding in the weeks following the memorandum of understanding signed by the U.S. and Iran on June 17 to reopen the strait.

“After the collapse of the MOU, we have entered the worst phase of this conflict for merchant shipping,” said Dimitris Maniatis, CEO of the maritime risk service Marisks, headquartered in Athens, Greece.

“The primary reason is the fact that the Iranians want to assert more authority and control over what is happening in the Strait of Hormuz,” Maniatis said.

Some 61 commercial ships have been attacked in the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, and Gulf of Oman since March 1, resulting in the deaths of at least 17 seafarers and dozens of injuries, according to the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency.

At least a dozen tankers have been struck this month in and around Hormuz, killing at least two seafarers, as fighting sharply escalates between the U.S. and Iran, according to the IMO data.

The Red Sea attacks now threaten millions of barrels per day of oil that the Saudis redirected through a pipeline to its western coast amid to the security situation in Hormuz. The Saudi exports transit through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a chokepoint that links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.

“The Iranians and the Houthis together now are implementing a very significant blow to American national interests, the American oil companies and of course Saudi Arabia,” Maniatis said. “But they’re not managing to entirely choke exports.”

Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea from 2023 to 2025 in response to Israel’s war in Gaza dramatically reduced traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb. Shipping through the strait had still not fully recovered.

The Saudis can redirect some oil through a pipeline that stretches from a port on the Red Sea across Egypt to the Mediterranean but the logistics are complex, said Matt Smith, director of commodity research at Kpler….