The IRGC navy accused the tanker of having turned off its positioning and radar systems in an effort to evade detection.
A super tanker has caught fire after striking a sea mine in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Saturday.
In a statement shared via Iranian state media, the IRGC’s navy said a tanker carrying more than two million barrels of oil struck a mine whilst “attempting to pass through an unauthorised route” in the Strait, causing a “massive explosion” and a “fierce fire.” It is unclear exactly where the incident took place.
The insurance companies should require each tanker to have a minesweeper ship in front of it. Costs would be higher than normal, but surely not higher than the cost of replacing an entire hull and the value of its oil cargo?
A minesweeping ship which on it’s own can keep the entire depth and width a supertanker needs clear is probably nonexistant, and also does not help against drone boats or UAVs.
No sane freighter tries to sneak by because of this. That one was probably motivated by greed due to high oil prices, and see what it got them.
The insurance companies should not allow transit at all. That they do, means someone is subsidizing them to do so secretly, and that is the truth.
Those things costed 100 million or more even before 2015 and all the inflation.
A “super tanker” (a VLCC or Suezmax) built in 2015 would be about 100m. I new one built today would be between 300m-500m.