Kuwait oil tanker damaged after Iranian drone attack at Dubai port, oil spill warning issued

A Kuwaiti oil tanker was attacked by Iranian forces while docked at a Dubai port in the United Arab Emirates on the morning of Mar. 31.

The tanker Al-Salmi caught fire in Emirati waters; no injuries were reported among the ship's crew of 24.

In a post on X, the Kuwait News Agency said: "The government of Dubai confirmed that firefighting teams successfully extinguished the fire that broke out on the Kuwaiti oil tanker Al-Salmi after an Iranian drone attack at Dubai Port early on Tuesday".

In a previous post, the Kuwait News Agency said that specialised maritime firefighting units were deployed.

Ship's hull damaged

According to The New York Times (NYT), which quoted the Kuwaiti Petroleum Corporation, the attack damaged the ship's hull, which could cause an oil spill.

In a post on X, Tanker Trackers, a maritime intelligence company, shared that about two million barrels of crude oil were on board the vessel.

"AL SALMI (9534793); a Kuwaiti VLCC supertanker laden with 1.2 million barrels of Saudi crude and 800,000 barrels of Kuwaiti crude as per our tracking. She was done loading a month ago."

The Al-Salmi is 332 metres long and 60 metres wide, and was next headed to Qingdao, China, according to Marine Traffic.

NYT reported that the ship was built in 2011 by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering in South Korea.

Strait of Hormuz

The attack on Al-Salmi comes amidst a standstill, as commercial vessels are bottlenecked at the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has launched retaliatory attacks on ships in regional waters, and fewer than 150 tankers have passed the strait in March, according to NYT, which quoted data from S&P Market Intelligence.

Typically, about 140 ships pass the straits daily, reported NYT.

Top photo from Ivan Meshkov/Marine Traffic Website