Three oil tankers hit by projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz, Marisks reports

Three Liberian-flagged oil tankers were hit by unknown projectiles on Tuesday as they passed through the Strait of Hormuz, as Reuters reports, citing the maritime intelligence service Marisks.

According to the Marisks report, published late on Wednesday, the ships were sailing with their automatic identification system (AIS) transponders turned off to avoid detection — a practice that has become increasingly common in the strait, where attacks on commercial ships have become almost routine.

They are the oil products tanker Al Ruwais, which had carried out a ship-to-ship transfer near Oman’s port of Sohar in late September to unload its diesel cargo; the supertanker Mersin Prosperity, which in mid-September had transferred 2 million barrels of Iraqi Basrah crude to another vessel; and the aframax tanker Sinbad, which had loaded refined products at the industrial port of Jubail in Saudi Arabia in early September — data from the analytics firm Kpler, cited by Reuters.

ADNOC Logistics & Services, which manages Al Ruwais and Mersin Prosperity, declined to comment, while Sinbad’s manager, Anglo-Eastern Tanker Management, did not respond to a request for comment. The new attacks deepen the maritime security crisis in the strait through which about a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes.