Disguised as a broken ship, the ship passed through the Strait of Hormuz

A vessel disguised as a decommissioned Jamal gas carrier managed to cross the Strait of Hormuz, which is actually under the control of Iran. This was reported on March 21 by the Bloomberg news agency, citing data from ship tracking systems.

According to the agency, the vessel, identifying itself as the Jamal LNG tanker, left the strait on the morning of March 20. However, the real tanker with that name was put on disassembly in India back in October 2025. This is the first known case of using the tactics of a "zombie ship" to pass through the Strait of Hormuz since the beginning of the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East.

Jamal first appeared on radar on March 13 in the Gulf of Oman, indicating the port of Sohar in Oman as its destination. Then the ship turned off its transponders and disappeared from the field of observation, re-contacting on March 20 in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Sharjah (UAE) without specifying its destination. The last signal was recorded off the southeastern coast of Iran.

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On March 15, President of the United States Donald Trump appealed to countries dependent on oil supplied through the Strait of Hormuz, blocked by Iran, to ensure the safety of this transport route. He then threatened NATO with a "bad future" if it refused to help unblock the water area.

Later, on March 17, the Axios portal learned about the reluctance of the US allies to join the coalition on the Strait of Hormuz. Trump himself called the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz unfair, because the United States "has already won." The day before, he also announced the imminent completion of the operation against Iran, assuring that "we will not have to wait long."

Denis Astafyev, an entrepreneur and founder of the SharesPro fintech platform, said on March 20 that a sharp rise in oil prices could trigger a recession in a number of the world's largest economies, despite attempts to mitigate the situation with the help of strategic reserves. According to him, the International Energy Agency announced the largest release of reserves in history — 400 million barrels from 32 countries.

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