SINGAPORE / WASHINGTON — Two very large crude carriers loaded with Saudi oil were struck by unknown projectiles within minutes of each other while sailing outbound through the Strait of Hormuz late Monday, Aug. 31, 2026, shipping-intelligence firms and the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency reported Tuesday.

According to a Reuters dispatch carried by SRN News, Athens-based Marisks said the Saudi-flagged VLCC Sidr, operated by Bahri, was hit about 16.6 nautical miles northeast of Khasab, Oman, around 1952 UTC. Minutes later the Liberian-flagged Senegal Prosperity, operated by South Korea's Sinokor, was struck by three projectiles about 17 nautical miles east of Khasab. Marisks said all crew aboard were reported safe. UKMTO separately reported three projectiles hitting a tanker in the same area on an outbound Hormuz transit, matching the second incident.

Kpler data cited by Reuters showed each tanker had loaded about 2 million barrels of Saudi crude at the Juaymah terminal last week. Saudi Aramco had resumed loadings and sales from inside the strait in August after months of diverting more oil toward Red Sea and Mediterranean outlets. Bahri and Sinokor did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Insurance Journal, citing Marisks, said both ships had been sailing with AIS dark for stretches of the voyage; Sidr was later shown anchored near the Omani coast.

No public claim of responsibility was reported in the Tuesday wires. Attribution remains open: the projectiles are described as unknown. The hits landed amid a fresh U.S.–Iran fire exchange — a U.S. strike on rocket launchers on Iran's Larak Island and Iranian fire at American positions in Jordan — and after President Donald Trump threatened further strikes. Oil prices rose Tuesday on that risk premium, Reuters and CNBC reported.

Hormuz remains the world's most important oil chokepoint. When governments and non-state actors turn the waterway into a weapons range, freighters and consumers eat the risk first. Crews on Sidr and Senegal Prosperity got out alive on the account Marisks and UKMTO gave. The market will price the next projectile the same way it always does: through the barrel.

Sources