Supertanker Hits Mines in Strait of Hormuz

Reports have come in this morning that overnight, a Super Tanker carrying two-million barrels of crude oil, sailing out of the Persian Gulf, struck two (2) naval mines planted by Iran.   The ship reportedly suffered severe damage, went on fire, and is disabled.

Tehran announced that an oil supertanker transiting the U.S-backed Omani route in the Strait of Hormuz was struck by two naval mines, setting the ship ablaze and forcing it to stop.

At present, the claim hasn't been verified, but if true, it raises questions about how accurate U.S statements that the Strait has been cleared of mines are.

The number of visible commodity vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz dropped to five per day over the weekend, shipping data showed on Monday, as companies tread cautiously amid continued attacks on ships.The actual number of ships passing the strait could be higher as some vessels have switched off their automatic identification system to evade attacks.Weekend traffic was limited to small-sized vessels, data from commodities firm Kpler showed. These included two liquefied petroleum gas carriers with one of them exiting the strait via the Iranian route while the other sailed out in the dark and is heading for India, the data showed.On Friday, 14 vessels passed the strait including a very large crude carrier laden with 2 million barrels of Qatari oil that exited with its transponder switched off.

Prior to the US/Israel sneak attack in February, which triggered Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz, about 120-140 ships per day transited those waters.

Since the closure, nowhere near that number of ships has gone through.

The world is literally running out of crude oil reserves and as long as the Strait remains closed, there is nothing the world can do to alleviate the growing oil shortages.