Updated

Maritime analysts said the threat to oil tankers across the Middle East is now the most severe since the beginning of the war with Iran. Fresh attacks on alternative shipping routes, used after disruption at the Strait of Hormuz, have left tanker operators facing an increasingly complex risk picture with few safe options. The assessment highlights how the conflict has spread beyond a single chokepoint to threaten the wider regional energy supply chain, raising insurance costs and complicating crude exports even as diplomatic efforts to reopen Hormuz continue.