️🇺🇸🇮🇷 - Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy claims that two oil tankers trying to pass the Strait of Hormuz with their AIS transmitters turned off caught fire after hitting naval mines.
▶️ According to the Revolutionary Guards, two more tankers that tried to cross the strait covertly then responded to warnings from its maritime traffic control center and turned back towards the Persian Gulf.
▶️ It is suspected that the four vessels were part of an organized convoy in the US operating under the auspices of fighter jets and helicopters, although this has not yet been confirmed. The incident comes against the backdrop of a sharp escalation in Iranian attacks on oil tankers over the past two weeks. ▶️ While analysts estimate that oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz recovered to pre-war levels during September and October, recent shipping data indicate that the outflow of oil has since decreased significantly.
▶️ The renewed disruption comes at a particularly vulnerable time for global oil markets, when strategic oil reserves, including the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), remain at historically depleted levels, leaving limited reserves to absorb another prolonged supply shock.