{"id":1097,"date":"2026-10-25T03:32:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T03:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regulasshipping.com\/blog\/navarea-ix-404-26-places-ghana-prosperity-4-5-nm-south-of-musandam\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T03:32:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T03:32:18","slug":"navarea-ix-404-26-places-ghana-prosperity-4-5-nm-south-of-musandam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regulasshipping.com\/blog\/navarea-ix-404-26-places-ghana-prosperity-4-5-nm-south-of-musandam\/","title":{"rendered":"NAVAREA IX 404-26 places Ghana Prosperity 4.5 NM south of Musandam"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Hydrographer of Pakistan issued NAVAREA IX 404\/26 at 240230 UTC on 24 October for the Strait of Hormuz charts BA 2888, 3171, 3172 and 3174 and Oman chart OM1219. The official text states that oil tanker Ghana Prosperity is reported involved in a security incident and anchored in 26-17.052N 056-33.35E, approximately 4.5 nautical miles south of Jazirat Musandam, and cautions mariners. That is the working primary. It is a named-hull, named-anchorage hydrographic instrument. It is not a UKMTO Attack PDF, not Warning 182-26, and not a new 24 October projectile finding.<\/p>\n

NGA HYDROPAC 3097\/26 reprints the same geometry as a Strait of Hormuz notice: M\/V Ghana Prosperity suffered a security incident and anchored in 26-17.05N 056-33.35E. Vessels are advised to keep clear of this position and to exercise extreme caution. Hold both instruments against one hull and one position. The NAVAREA cautions mariners. HYDROPAC adds the keep-clear and the extreme-caution line. Neither product prints a date for the security incident, a projectile type, a fire, a crew line, a pollution volume, or an attacker. Do not invent a 24 October hit from a Saturday DTG.<\/p>\n

The International Maritime Organization\u2019s highlighted-incidents board, as at 22 October, already prints GHANA PROSPERITY, IMO 9732541, 3 October, Strait of Hormuz, damaged, no pollution. That row has been on the board since the early-October snapshots and was wrap colour on the dedicated Maran Gas Mystras and 12 October 104-count pieces. It was never a dedicated Ghana Prosperity article on this desk. Saturday\u2019s 404\/26 is the first official NAVAREA that names the hull, gives a Musandam lat-long, and \u2014 through HYDROPAC 3097\/26 \u2014 tells other traffic to keep clear. Masters who brief Sunday as a second Ghana Prosperity attack, as an increment past IMO 120, or as a naming of Friday\u2019s unnamed Limah tanker will have merged three products.<\/p>\n

What the warning actually printed<\/h2>\n

The hydrographic text is short. DTG 240230 UTC OCT 2026. NAVAREA IX 404\/26. STRAIT OF HORMUZ. Charts BA 2888, 3171, 3172, 3174 and Oman OM1219. OIL TANKER GHANA PROSPERITY REPORTED INVOLVED IN A SECURITY INCIDENT AND ANCHORED IN 26-17.052N 056-33.35E APPROXIMATELY 4.5NM SOUTH OF JAZIRAT MUSANDAM. MARINERS CAUTIONED. That is the product. The coordinator printed neither an incident clock, a UKMTO number, an IMO number, a flag, a cargo, a bunker figure, a fire, a crew state, a pollution line, a tow, nor an attacker. HYDROPAC 3097\/26 adds KEEP CLEAR and EXTREME CAUTION and does not add a radius in nautical miles. Plot the position. Do not invent a one-mile circle the way Friday\u2019s Khoryv wreck notice printed one. Do not invent a wreck. The ship is printed as anchored, not sunk.<\/p>\n

4.5 nautical miles south of Jazirat Musandam, 26-17.052N 056-33.35E, sits on the southern Omani corridor inside the Strait, not at Fujairah, not at Khor Fakkan, and not on Friday\u2019s 7-nautical-mile Limah offset. It is also not Al Dasma\u2019s NAVAREA IX 396\/26 anchorage about 1.3 nautical miles west of Bukha. A VLCC-sized hull at that Musandam offset is a TSS and inbound\/outbound Hormuz traffic problem. It is not a port closure. Sohar, Khasab, Fujairah and the Iranian-controlled northern route are not closed by this notice. Do not brief a Hormuz shutdown from a named anchorage 4.5 miles south of the island.<\/p>\n

Open-register colour only, not a NAVAREA finding: IMO 9732541, Liberia, crude oil tanker, built 2016, about 333 metres, about 154,133 gt \/ 299,047 dwt, MMSI 636026121. Registers used here list registered owner Haut Brion 6 SA, commercial manager Sinokor Maritime Co Ltd, and ISM manager Columbia Shipmanagement Ltd. Industry matching in the first week of October already put Ghana Prosperity beside Cameroon Prosperity as Sinokor VLCCs. Cameroon Prosperity remains a separate IMO row, 4 October, Strait of Hormuz, damaged, no pollution, still carrying the board\u2019s eight-digit IMO typo 93151598 against the working seven-digit 9315159 on earlier files. Do not fold the two Prosperity hulls into one Saturday keep-clear.<\/p>\n

What this is not, and the 3 October clock<\/h2>\n

A Turkish shipowners\u2019 security brief dated 8 October, already unused as a dedicated product on this desk, listed Ghana Prosperity as hit on 3 October, belatedly reported, with a hull breach above the waterline. That is association colour. It is consistent with the IMO date. It is not a UKMTO PDF. UKMTO\u2019s recent-incidents board still ends at 181-26 and has not printed a Ghana Prosperity warning number. JMIC Update 107 named Chloe, Al Dasma and Soyia and did not take this hull. Do not assign 404\/26 to 181-26, 179-26, 180-26 or 178-26. Do not brief Saturday as proof that the 3 October row was a new October-record attack.<\/p>\n

This is not Friday\u2019s dedicated 181-26 Limah file. That product remains an unnamed tanker, 1715 UTC 22 October, 7 nautical miles northeast of Limah, outbound, continued voyage, no hull on the PDF. Ghana Prosperity is named, anchored, and 4.5 nautical miles south of Jazirat Musandam. Those are different geometries. If a later UKMTO revision or a flag-state note collapses 181-26 onto this hull, that will be a new primary. Saturday\u2019s NAVAREA does not make that collapse.<\/p>\n

This is not Cape Dao. Companion NAVAREA IX 403\/26, issued 30 minutes later at 240300 UTC, records Cape Dao reported sunk 35 nautical miles east of Sohar and cancels 380\/26. Different hull, different chart, different fate. 404\/26 is an anchored tanker at Musandam. 403\/26 is a wreck on the Sohar coastal track. Keep each on its own sheet. This is not the UAE ministry\u2019s Umm Al Quwain beach-spill confirmation, not Gem No. 2, and not Update 108. The IMO board is still 120 confirmed \/ 24 seafarer fatalities as at 22 October. Saturday\u2019s keep-clear does not move that count and does not print a second attack against this IMO number the way Al Dasma carries a second-attack row.<\/p>\n

Operational implications<\/h2>\n

A named VLCC-class tanker reported at anchor 4.5 nautical miles south of Jazirat Musandam is a routing and lookout problem on the southern Hormuz corridor. Update 107 still holds the Strait at SEVERE, flags AIS-on targeting risk, and prints attempted mining within and adjacent to the TSS. A static, AIS-visible hull in that box is the targeting profile Update 107 already warned about for vessels stationary for extended periods. HYDROPAC\u2019s keep-clear is for other traffic. It is also a reminder that the ship herself is a stationary object in a SEVERE box. CSOs with this hull, or with a hull nearby, should treat 26-17.052N 056-33.35E as a plotted obstruction and as a possible follow-on-strike scene, not as a quiet refuge anchorage.<\/p>\n

The notice does not say whether the ship is under tow, NUC, discharging, waiting for a survey, or simply holding. It does not say the 3 October above-waterline breach is the damage that put her there. It does not say she is free of cargo. A 299,000-dwt crude tanker at a Musandam offset is a pollution and salvage watch even when IMO still prints no pollution against the 3 October row. Charterers, P&I and war-risk underwriters who have been holding Ghana Prosperity as an unused board name now have a lat-long and a keep-clear. They still do not have a UKMTO PDF that prints the hull. They still do not have a JMIC naming. They still do not have a refuge-port or a return-to-passage line.<\/p>\n

Independent Hormuz transits remain single-digit on Update 107. U.S.-facilitated transits and the NCAGS series remain the throughput that note actually printed. A named anchored tanker south of Musandam does not reopen the strait and does not clear the Fujairah \/ Khor Fakkan density on that note. Masters who have been routing along the Omani coast to stay off the northern Iranian-controlled route now have one more named object on OM1219. Periodic repositioning, already advised on Update 107 for static AIS-on hulls, applies to this anchorage as much as to Fujairah. Do not treat HYDROPAC\u2019s extreme caution as a published mining confirmation. Do not treat the absence of a UKMTO number as a finding that the ship was not hit.<\/p>\n

Flag, class and ISM work remain with Liberia, the class society on the register, Columbia as DOC holder on the colour used here, and Sinokor as commercial manager on that colour. None of those names is on 404\/26. Next-of-kin and crew-state work cannot be closed from a mariners-cautioned line that prints no crew. The 8 October association brief did not print a casualty. IMO did not print a casualty. Saturday\u2019s notice does not print one. Leave the crew table empty until the flag, the manager or UKMTO says otherwise.<\/p>\n

What Operators Should Note<\/h2>\n