On October 9 a very large crude carrier (VLCC) was hit by an unidentified projectile causing a fire on board that was later extinguished. The attack took place about 13 nautical miles west of Al Jazeera in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) just inside the Gulf.
The latest information available said no information has yet been provided about the fate of the crew or the damage to the boat.
The tanker was the Gem No.2, a 2017-built, Panama-flagged crude carrier with a deadweight capacity of 302,000 tons, according to vessel identification information published by Vanguard Tech. The vessel is operated in Taiwan and owned by Global Energy Maritime, a joint venture affiliated with U-Ming Marine Transport. The latter has a fleet of three VLCCs and a chemical tanker.
Daily maritime security warnings highlight escalating risks
The incident adds to an increasingly concerning pattern of attacks and security alerts in the region. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) issued a warning following the latest strike, extending a record in which at least one warning has been published every day since the beginning of October 2026.
By October 9, the organisation had issued 13 warnings relating to 13 separate incidents during the month.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has separately recorded six confirmed attacks in the Middle East in October. Among them was the October 5 attack on the One Peace, which left at least 12 seafarers injured.
The latest incident underscores the persistent risks facing commercial shipping operators navigating waters around the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Gulf region.
Gem No.2 absent from Iran’s list of non-compliant vessels
Despite the attack, the Gem No.2 does not appear on the list of vessels considered non-compliant by Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA). That list has now grown to 100 ships.
The absence of the tanker from the list comes as Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy steps up its warnings against vessels crossing the Strait of Hormuz without Iranian authorization.
In a statement published by Sepah, the news agency affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, the IRGC Navy announced that it intended to broaden the range of vessels it targets in response to unauthorized transits.
“Any vessel that passes through an unauthorised passage will be pursued throughout the region, and its punishment will be definitive,” the IRGC Navy stated.
The warning signals a potential expansion of Iran’s enforcement actions against commercial ships operating in and around the strategic waterway, a critical route for global energy transportation.
Iran says strike hits LPG ship off Oman
The IRGC Navy also said in the same statement it carried out an attack on the NV Sunshine, a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carrier, said to be transiting the Strait of Hormuz on the southern route, off the coast of Oman.
The NV Sunshine is a Vietnam-flagged LPG carrier, built in 2007 with a deadweight of 54,000 tons. Nhat Viet Transportation Corporation owns and operates it.
However, the claim should be treated with caution. Iranian news agencies and official authorities have announced attacks that later turned out to be false.
As such, the latest statements add to the uncertainty surrounding an already volatile maritime security environment in which ship operators must grapple with both reported physical threats and conflicting information about incidents at sea.
