A fully loaded Kuwaiti crude oil tanker was struck by an Iranian drone attack at Dubai’s Jebel Ali port anchorage in the UAE, damaging the vessel's hull, raising concerns about a possible oil spill.
Dubai authorities said that the drone attack caused a fire on board the Al Salmi, which was extinguished early on Tuesday hours after the attack was first reported. They also said that they assessed the damage and evacuated the crew from the vessel.
The attack came after US President Donald Trump warned that the US would obliterate Iran's energy plants and oil wells if it did not open the Strait of Hormuz.
The Kuwait Petroleum Corporation had earlier warned that the damages could lead to a potential oil spill.
Dubai authorities have now confirmed that all 24 crew members aboard the Kuwaiti tanker are safe after the incident, with no injuries reported. They have also contained the damages caused by the attack. “Dubai authorities confirm that response teams have successfully contained the incident involving the Kuwaiti oil tanker in Dubai waters, with no oil leakage and no injuries reported,” Dubai's media office said on X.
The tanker, which was built in 2011, is a very large crude carrier vessel measuring 333 metres in length with a beam of 60 meters. The summer deadweight capacity of the vessel is 319,660 tonnes.
At the time of the attack, the vessel was carrying around 2 million barrels of crude oil, of which 1.2 million were sourced from Saudi Arabia and 800,000 barrels from Kuwait and was bound for Qingdao, China.
Any damage to the vessel would be of serious concern and could be catastrophic to the environment due to the massive load of crude it carries.
