Yutaka Katada, the president of Kokuka Sangyo, the Japanese company that chartered the Kokuka Sangyo oil tanker, said the ship was hit by a torpedo and not a mine, as US officials claim that Iran is blaming it.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, reiterated that the attacks against two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman have the signature of Iran. "We are sure that they led him because we saw the boat in the video. One of the mines did not explode and is of Iranian manufacture".
Responsibilities for the attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman are unclear and may never really be, as in the case of similar incidents when Riyadh reported the sabotage of two other tankers.
The only sure thing is that if the security of this sea area deteriorates again, the price of oil, which immediately after the attack reacted with a rise of up to 4,45%, could easily return to $ 100 a barrel. , Ubs warns.
The canal, which separates the waters of the Persian Gulf from the Gulf of Oman and therefore from the open sea, is in fact the main oil artery in the world. And its closure is the retaliation that Tehran evokes every time its opponents threaten a military initiative or a tightening of sanctions.
The narrowest point is 33 kilometers wide but the actual "motorways of the sea" where the oil tankers must pass are three kilometers wide. Larger vessels are therefore often forced to pass through Iranian territorial waters, which makes the channel easily controllable.
Recently, referring to the US-imposed sanctions against Iran and Trump's decision to exit the nuclear deal, General Mohammad Bagheri warned that the strait could be closed completely in the event of a continuation of hostilities. "If our oil is not delivered through the Strait of Hormuz, those of other nations will not pass either," the senior official told the Isna news agency.
The strait flows into traffic from the major producing states of the region. In addition to Iran, the archenemy Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Kuwait, Iraq, Bahrain, Qatar. An average of 14 tankers with 17,4 million barrels of oil on board pass through the canal every day. A figure that is equal to over a fifth of the world's oil supplies and over a third of those transported by sea. And with the growth of the Liquefied Natural Gas market, of which Qatar is the world's largest exporter, the area has only become even more crucial.
It should also be noted that 80% of the oil exiting the strait is directed towards Asian markets. This makes it clear why China and Japan are willing to do anything to avoid an escalation that would have a very heavy effect on their economies.
For the Energy Information Administration, the information and analysis division of the US Department of Energy, the strait is the worst bottleneck in the world. More delicate than the Strait of Malacca, where 16 million barrels per day pass, or the Suez Canal, 5 million barrels. And for global insurers, Bloomberg writes, the hub hasn't been so unstable since 2005, that is, since the Iraq war.
Nor was the chaos following the American invasion of the Arab country the most difficult moment. In the 80s, during the war between Iran and Iraq, 451 boats were the victims of an attack, according to data from the US Naval Institute, with responsibilities equally shared between the two warring states. A situation that led the US to intervene with their Navy, which began escorting oil tankers across the Persian Gulf.
Repeat such an operation would be extremely expensive, and would force the White House to seek allied support.