{"id":692,"date":"2026-09-15T11:33:04","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T11:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regulasshipping.com\/blog\/oman-tows-el-gaia-after-an-engine-room-fire-as-centcom-rejects-irans-mine-claim\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T05:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T05:30:11","slug":"oman-tows-el-gaia-after-an-engine-room-fire-as-centcom-rejects-irans-mine-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regulasshipping.com\/blog\/oman-tows-el-gaia-after-an-engine-room-fire-as-centcom-rejects-irans-mine-claim\/","title":{"rendered":"Oman Tows El Gaia After an Engine-Room Fire as CENTCOM Rejects Iran’s Mine Claim"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oman\u2019s Maritime Security Centre said on Tuesday, 15 September 2026, that it is following operations to tow the Panama-flagged oil tanker El Gaia to a port in the Sultanate after a fire in the engine room that followed an earlier targeting. The centre placed the hull 103 nautical miles northeast of Musandam Governorate. A Royal Navy of Oman vessel evacuated 23 crew members and arranged medical care with the competent health authorities. Search operations continue for two crew members who remain missing.<\/p>\n

That Tuesday account is a salvage, SAR and port-state file, not a restatement of Sunday\u2019s naming. Pakistan NAVAREA IX warning 319\/26 had already identified El Gaia, IMO 9325336, with fire, drift and an oil spill at 26\u00b026.50\u2032N, 056\u00b030.10\u2032E, about 3.6 nautical miles northwest of Jazirat Musandam on 13 September. A hull now reported more than 100 nautical miles northeast of Musandam is a moved, or moving, casualty. Masters still approaching the strait should not treat the NAVAREA position as the only hazard. A disabled tanker under tow, with an engine-room fire in the recent history, is a navigation, pollution and war-risk object in the Gulf of Oman as well as a Hormuz incident.<\/p>\n

ClassNK lists El Gaia as official number 30982-05-CH, call sign 3ECL5, flag Panama. She is a 2005-built oil carrier of 28,799 gross tons and 47,999 deadweight tonnes, 179.99 metres overall, with 57,289 cubic metres of cargo tank capacity. The registered owner is El Gaia Shipping Inc; the manager is Elsey Ship Management LLC. Former names are Nave Dorado and Kuroshio Express. She was built at Iwagi Zosen, hull 231, delivered on 23 August 2005. Those particulars still matter for the casualty file: this is a mid-size products tanker under tow, not an unnamed hull in a UKMTO sentence, and the engine-room fire is a machinery event as well as a security event.<\/p>\n

The crew counts have not been reconciled in public. India\u2019s Ministry of External Affairs said on 13 September that 14 Indian seafarers were on board, that 13 were rescued and shifted ashore, and that search and rescue for one missing Indian national was continuing, with the Indian Embassy in Oman coordinating with Omani authorities. Oman\u2019s Tuesday statement speaks of 23 people taken off and two still missing. A 48,000-deadweight products tanker can carry a mixed complement larger than the Indian ratings New Delhi named. Operators should keep both figures on the file and not collapse them into a single headcount until the company, the flag or a coastal state says they describe the same people. Next-of-kin, P&I and flag notification follow the company\u2019s ISM emergency response either way.<\/p>\n

Mine, missile or drone is an attribution fight, not a routing clearance<\/h2>\n

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy said on Monday night that the tanker, also identified as Algaya, IMO 9325336, exploded after striking naval mines while attempting to transit a restricted zone south of the Strait of Hormuz. The IRGC said earlier warnings about that route had been ignored, that efforts to contain the blaze failed, and that the strait remains closed under its \u201csmart\u201d surveillance and control. Iranian naval messaging has also told companies not to rely on American assurances about so-called safe corridors and to coordinate with the Persian Gulf Strait Authority.<\/p>\n

U.S. Central Command rejected that mine account on Monday as false. CENTCOM said El Gaia was struck by an Iranian missile last month and rendered inoperable, then struck again with a drone over the weekend while the ship sat in waters off Oman, and that a regional partner is now towing the tanker. \u201cThe IRGC\u2019s false claim is yet another example of their lies and intimidation attempts while they try to impede commercial vessels in the strait,\u201d the command said. India condemned an attack on a commercial vessel off Oman and did not name a weapon or an attacker. Independent AIS reporting cited in regional coverage showed El Gaia with port calls at Ras Laffan and Sohar into early September and underway at normal speeds around then. That tracking does not, by itself, confirm or disprove either the mine story or the claim of an earlier missile that left the ship inoperable. It does tell operators that the public attribution fight is running ahead of a published casualty investigation.<\/p>\n

JMIC continues to rate the threat to commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz as SEVERE and to warn of possible mining in and around the traffic separation scheme, together with projectile attacks, IRGC surveillance, VHF hailing and efforts to influence vessel routing. That warning sits less than three weeks after CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said U.S. forces had cleared Iranian mines from the internationally recognised shipping lanes using Navy divers, SEALs and air power, following a political announcement that mines had been removed or destroyed from international waters in the strait. Maritime authorities have not declared the wider waterway mine-free. Clearing known mines from monitored lanes is not the same as a master\u2019s passage plan. Operators already have a JMIC SEVERE product and a live projectile record; they do not need to pick a capital\u2019s preferred weapon type before they keep fire-response, citadel or abandon-ship readiness live.<\/p>\n

A new unnamed projectile on Monday keeps the envelope open<\/h2>\n

UK Maritime Trade Operations issued a separate report on Tuesday, saying a verified source reported that an unknown projectile struck a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz at 2040 GMT on Monday, 14 September. UKMTO reported no damage and no environmental impact, did not name the ship, and said authorities were investigating. Anadolu and other outlets left it unclear whether that advisory referred to El Gaia or to another hull. The timing argues for a separate event. Oman\u2019s El Gaia fire and SAR sit on a weekend attack and a Sunday NAVAREA; 2040 GMT Monday is the following evening. Until UKMTO, MSCIO or a flag administration maps the products, company security officers should log two live files: a named tanker under tow with missing crew, and an unnamed Monday projectile with no reported damage.<\/p>\n

JMIC said three vessels were attacked in the strait during its latest 72-hour reporting period. On 10 September a tanker reported another vessel on fire about six nautical miles ahead; the master later said two unidentified ships had each been struck by two unknown projectiles. Another tanker issued a distress call late on 12 September after an unknown projectile, and the vessel\u2019s management later confirmed a severe fire aboard a fully loaded tanker. UKMTO\u2019s 11 September Voluntary Reporting Area overview still put Hormuz traffic about 90 percent below pre-conflict levels. Over the previous seven days, U.S.-reported facilitated transits through the southern route averaged about 20 vessels a day against about six AIS-derived transits a day, a gap UKMTO said suggests a large share of traffic remains dependent on facilitated passage. JMIC recorded 70 U.S.-facilitated transits from 10 through 12 September. Before the conflict the strait averaged about 138 vessel movements a day. CENTCOM has said it had redirected 101 commercial vessels as of 13 September.<\/p>\n

There is still no IMO circular, no published traffic separation scheme, and no signed Iran\u2013Oman instrument that a master can put in the passage plan. Oman postponed the Salalah briefing that was due on Monday. Ships that move through the strait continue to do so against UKMTO, MSCIO, IFC-IOR and BMP Maritime Security reporting. A Tuesday tow 103 nautical miles off Musandam, a missing-crew SAR, and a Monday projectile with a nil damage line do not reopen the waterway. They tell the DPA that the casualty is now a coastal-state salvage problem as well as a Hormuz security problem, and that the next unnamed warning may arrive before the last one is closed.<\/p>\n

What Operators Should Note<\/h2>\n