Loss Prevention Advice
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Off the coast of Oman over the weekend, 16 tankers clustered together to transfer millions of barrels of oil that had been stranded in the Persian Gulf. A month ago, that area had been entirely empty.
They’re part of a growing number of tankers that are turning their transponders off to lift oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz from a trickle to a stream. While conventional vessel-tracking data show little change in shipments, senior shipping executives, Asian oil buyers and satellite images paint a different picture: That Hormuz is now a lot less blocked, with transits becoming more steady and greater in volume.
The increase in Gulf producers’ ships going dark to sneak through undetected by Iran is at the heart of the rise in flows, coinciding with a period where the US has been helping ships navigate through the waterway. The recent volumes add to signs that the oil market is managing to route enough to buyers and avert a price surge as the Iran war causes the biggest supply disruption in oil market history.
Middle East producers have been using vessels they control to ferry barrels outside of Hormuz — avoiding the stratospheric fees that would be commanded by the small number of shipowners willing to transit. After exiting, they then transfer oil onto tankers that take the cargoes to buyers in Asia and elsewhere.
“There’s an increase in trends as we’re observing,” said Larry Johnson, head of freight at commodity trader Mercuria Energy Group. “They’re mainly or exclusively government-owned ships that are making it through,” he said, adding that those vessels “seem to have channels of communication and means of securing safe passage somehow, some way.”
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The merchant vessel transiting off Yemen’s southern coast exchanged gunfire with an armed small craft on Tuesday in an incident that appears more consistent with piracy than the missile and drone attacks that have characterized the regional conflict involving the Iran-backed Houthi group in Yemen.
A cargo vessel reported being approached by a small craft carrying six-armed individuals approximately 88 nautical miles southwest of Balhaf, Yemen.
“There was an exchange of fire between the small craft and the cargo vessel’s Armed Security Team resulting in the small craft turning away,” UKMTO said in an advisory. Authorities are investigating the incident.
The attack occurred in waters near the Gulf of Aden, a region long associated with Somali piracy, although pirate activity has remained relatively limited compared to the peak years of the late 2000s and early 2010s.
The incident comes just days after Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement announced it would resume attacks against Israeli-linked shipping transiting the Red Sea and surrounding waters. However, the tactics described by UKMTO differ significantly from recent Houthi operations, which have primarily involved missiles, drones and explosive-laden unmanned surface vessels rather than armed personnel operating from small skiffs.
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Health Spotlight: Type 2 Diabetes as the first instalment of its 2026 policy year newsletter series. The Health Spotlight series, developed in conjunction with the USCG TAC PLUS Program and in collaboration with Medical Solutions Services (MSS), affords seafarers and maritime professionals’ practical guidance on wellness and safety at sea.
Full advisory at the following link.
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Lessons learned from an incident where an officer was injured after a tensioned towing line suddenly recoiled when it fouled during a vessel adrift operation.
Initial report
While the vessel was adrift, a tender was prepared for towing from the swimming platform. The line was connected and, following communication between deck and bridge, the operation proceeded on the understanding that the towing line was correctly rigged.
As the vessel moved ahead, tension built in the line, which then fouled on the upper section of a bitt, creating a restriction under load.
The officer approached to clear it and, with the line still under tension, attempted to free it by kicking it. When the line suddenly released, it recoiled violently, striking the officer on the arm and neck and briefly rendering them unconscious.