Two tankers were attacked in the ship-to-ship (STS) transfer zone off Basrah, Iraq's state oil marketer Somo said on 12 March, in the latest escalation targeting energy infrastructure and maritime trade across the Mideast Gulf.
Safesea Vishnu, flying the Marshall Islands flag and chartered by one of Somo's contracted Iraqi companies, and Maltese-flagged Zefyros were both struck in the STS area within Iraqi territorial waters, Somo said.
Zefyros had been on route to enter Khor Al-Zubair port later on 12 March to load 30,000t of naphtha, having completed an STS operation involving condensate produced by Iraq's Basra Gas Company, Somo said. It said the incident represents a serious threat to maritime safety and Iraq's oil operations, and said the attack could negatively affect the country's security and economy.
Iraq halted operations at its oil terminals following the attacks, according to officials from the General Company for Ports of Iraq (GCPI).
The incident adds further pressure on Iraq's already constrained export system. The country's southern oil infrastructure around Basrah, which includes the Basrah Oil Terminal (BOT) and Khor Al-Amaya Terminal (KAAOT), normally handles the vast majority of Iraqi crude exports. The country sent an average of 3.33mn b/d through its southern terminals in 2025, according to data from analytics firm Kpler.
The attacks are the latest in a series of incidents targeting vessels and energy infrastructure in the Mideast Gulf since the US and Israel began military strikes on Iran on 28 February, triggering retaliatory missile and drone attacks by Tehran against targets across the region. Storage tanks at the port of Salalah in Oman were heavily damaged after being bombed on 11 March. The US military has signalled plans to strike Iranian ports near the strait of Hormuz that Washington says are being used to support attacks on commercial shipping.
The escalating maritime security risks have effectively halted most commercial shipping through the strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint through which around 14mn b/d of crude and 6mn b/d of refined products transited before the war began.
Oil markets reacted sharply to the latest developments, with the front-month Ice Brent contract rising above $100/bl during Asian trading on 12 March, before retreating to $96.50/bl at 08:13 GMT.
