Panic In The Strait: Dramatic Onboard Footage Reveals Oil Super-Tanker Ablaze After 'Striking Iranian Mine' In Strait Of Hormuz, Carrying Two Million Barrels Of Saudi Crude As Black Smoke Billows Across The Sea

Terrifying new video filmed from the deck of a massive oil tanker shows the vessel fully engulfed in flames after it reportedly slammed into a naval mine while trying to slip out of the Strait of Hormuz through a US-backed southern corridor off the UAE coast.

The grainy, handheld footage, shared by The Hormuz Letter, captures the chaos in real time: thick, choking black smoke pouring across the deck, crew members in hard hats scrambling amid the equipment, and the glow of an intense fire already taking hold. From a distance, the scale of the inferno becomes clear as towering plumes of smoke rise from the water and flames lic,k across the surface of the sea.

In one particularly stark shot, the red disc of the sun burns through the smoke, its light reflecting off the waves below as the tanker continues to burn. The vessel is described as a very large crude carrier (VLCC) loaded with two million barrels of Saudi crude oil.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that the tanker exploded after hitting a mine while attempting to use an “unauthorized” route and had switched off its navigation systems. The Guards have repeatedly warned shipping companies that vessels ignoring Tehran’s designated lanes risk serious consequences, and state media has previously linked explosions in the southern passage to mines.

The incident comes amid a sharp rise in attacks and harassment of commercial vessels around the vital waterway, which normally carries a huge share of the world’s oil. Shipping traffic through Hormuz has fallen dramatically in recent days, with analysts noting far fewer crossings than usual and crude flows running well below pre-conflict levels. Separate reports in recent days have described projectiles striking other tankers in the Gulf and Red Sea, with crews safe in several cases but fires and damage reported.

Oil markets remain highly sensitive to any further disruption in the strait. With Saudi Arabia and other Gulf producers already relying on complicated shuttle and ship-to-ship transfer arrangements to move crude around the chokepoint, another major casualty risks adding further pressure to already elevated tanker rates and global supply concerns.

The onboard video does not identify the ship by name, and Iranian authorities have not publicly named the vessel or confirmed the precise cargo in their statements. UK maritime authorities have logged multiple recent incidents in the area involving fires after strikes by unknown projectiles. No independent confirmation of the mine claim or the exact status of the crew and cargo has been released as of Sunday morning.

The dramatic footage, however, leaves little doubt about the scale of the blaze now raging on the water.