Tankers Cross Strait of Hormuz at Night With Transponders Off Under US Protection: Report

WASHINGTON, Sep 3: Oil tankers are increasingly crossing the Strait of Hormuz at night with their tracking transponders switched off, in some cases under US military protection, as Gulf producers seek to continue moving crude amid attacks attributed to Iran, Ynet reported.

According to the report, US Navy-backed tankers are using the southern part of the strait, closer to Oman and farther from the Iranian coast, before transferring oil to customer vessels in the Gulf of Oman. CNN reportedly observed more than a dozen ship-to-ship transfers over two days. The US military also escorted 40 commercial vessels carrying about 18 million barrels of oil through the strait on Tuesday, a wartime high, while US forces struck nearly 60 Iranian military targets in the area, including air defenses, radar, maritime assets, mine-laying capabilities and communications sites. One US official told CNN that most, if not all, of the escorted vessels switched off their transponders while transiting the waterway to avoid detection.