The 72,825 dwt tanker LR Stephanie is struck in Hormuz and two seafarers wounded; weekend transits fall to 17 ships

Two crew members were lightly wounded aboard the 72,825 dwt crude oil tanker LR Stephanie, struck as it entered the Gulf; the vessel continued under its own power and no environmental effect was reported. On the same day an LPG tanker was also affected by fragments from unidentified munitions, with no injuries among the crew. This is at least the fourth tanker struck since mid-September, after the MT Trend, the STI Steadfast and the Al Maryah; the Joint Maritime Information Centre counts at least five incidents or security cases since 16 September and is holding the threat level in the strait at its highest grade.

The traffic data confirm the hardening. According to Kpler figures, only 17 commodity vessels passed through the strait over the weekend; the previous weekend the figure was 37, and the pre-war daily average was about 125 large commercial vessels. Across the week, 22 tankers carried roughly 42 million barrels of crude; the cargoes originated mainly in Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Ship-to-ship transfers off Oman reached about 2.5 million barrels a day in September. The tracking site straits.live says it recorded only 8 transits on 13 September and puts the pre-crisis baseline at 85 vessels a day; the pre-war reference value varies between 85 and 125 across sources.

The official accounts do not match either. US Admiral Brad Cooper said more than 2,000 commercial vessels had been escorted and that volumes over the past two weeks were the highest in six months, while Kpler data reported by Reuters show 17 transits over the weekend; the two pictures could not be independently reconciled. On the market side, straits.live shows Brent at 99.47 dollars for 22 September, down 0.86% over the past 24 hours. For Türkiye the mechanism is indirect but powerful: in a country that imports crude oil and LPG, the annual increase in the energy component of the export producer price index reached 106.24% in August, and in the same week the dollar renewed its record at 48.82 lira.