Tanker owned and operated by the Japanese company Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd has been damaged by an explosion suspected to have been caused by an attack near the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday.
A crew member suffered minor injuries and was the ship in the port position to assess the damage, the company explained. The impact on spot market for oil in Asia has been viewed as a minimum.
The ship, Mr. Star was loaded with 270 204 tons, when the incident occurred off the coast of Oman, said Mitsui OSK.
He said the ship was on its way to the port of Chiba near Tokyo.
The explosion occurred at 00.30 local time clock Wednesday (2030 GMT Tuesday), the Department of Transport said in Tokyo.
The ministry said it had reports of piracy in the region.
There was no leakage of oil from the tanker, a cargo of crude oil is very large (VLCC) with 16 Filipinos and 15 crew members on board of the Indians.
Is guaranteed by their own resources to the port of Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, to check the damage, a spokesman for the sender, the second largest in Japan, he said.
About 17 million barrels per day of oil flows through the Hormuz Straits of, and the oil from the Middle East account for 90 percent of total imports from Japan.
The location of the explosion near a lifeboat on the starboard side back suggested that the explosion was caused by the oil hardly, Mitsui OSK, has been cited by the Ministry.
In addition, a crew member appeared on the horizon, just before the explosion, then (Mitsui OSK) believes that there is a possibility that was caused by an attack from outside, the ministry said in a statement.
The impact on spot market for oil from Asia could be minimal, because the tanker had been taken three weeks after Japan reached, said dealers.
The event () will not stop the flow of oil, there will be no impact on what can be bought, said one oil trader based in Tokyo.
The vessel was about 2.3 million barrels of Qatar and Abu Dhabi Low Country Zakum crude oil, said industry sources.
The impact could be limited if there are serious, said a dealer at a refinery in North East Asia, presented the possible impact of the diversion of goods in the physical oil market.
If there is a spill that could be a different story. But this is not a big impact, said another dealer.