M. star: dent 16 meters below waterline hmm

IRAN'S navy on August 8 took delivery of four new mini submarines of the home-produced Ghadir class, 120 tonnes . Iran has described the Ghadir as stealth submarines, hardly detectable by sonar and aimed at coastal operations in shallow waters, notably in the Gulf.

The vessel is based on North Korean models of the Yono class. The M. Star collision occurred on July 28. more

M. Star: 23 m.-wide dent 16 m. BELOW waterline

MT M. Star entered Tokyo Bay Aug. 24. The mysterious impact left one 11-meter-wide, one-meter-deep dent in the aft starboard hull about six meters above the waterline, and another 23-meter-wide dent about 16 meters below the waterline, and damage to the ship's mess. more here

M. Star: 2 small vessels in the purported attack?

Two small unidentified ships were near the Japanese tanker that was damaged in a suspected attack in the Strait of Hormuz in late July.

The two small ships changed directions many times and made other suspicious moves, raising the possibility that they may have been involved in the purported attack.

The Japan Transport Safety Board, a body under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and the state-run National Maritime Research Institute are currently analyzing the radar images left in the tanker's data recorder, the sources said.

The National Police Agency's National Research Institute of Police Science is also checking substances collected from the damaged part of the tanker to see if they were components of an explosive.
earlier more here

M. Star: terrorist scenario in doubt: So it goes

If it were a suicide bomber, the explosive device would have pierced the hull or at least caused visible damage from shrapnel. The terrorist theory is the favoured scenario because the United Arab Emirates state news agency quoted an unnamed coast guard official as saying they found the remnants of handmade explosives on the hull and that terrorists were to blame. The Japanese government, meanwhile, is still carrying out its investigations into the cause of the blast on board the M Star, a government official said. The Straits are far outside of the operational radius that one would expect for a group that was operating in the Sinai to be able to then launch an attack in the Persian Gulf - that's showing quite a transnational operational reach. The damage to the M Star's hull was probably caused by a collision?

M. Star: genie is out of the bottle?

Spencer Ackerman as attackerman at firedoglake

The attack on the M Star was poorly executed, without powerful or sophisticated enough explosive to breech the hull or even sink the ship. But I wonder if now this genie is out of the bottle. With better funding and an experienced bomb-maker, as they used against the USS Cole in 2000 and the Limburg in 2002, the outcome might have been much more serious – a massive spill, or even a sunken supertanker in the Strait. Shipping is a very soft target, impossible to defend, and the western economy is very sensitive to increases in the price of crude oil. The Persian Gulf, especially the Strait of Hormuz is a natural choke point, through which something on the order of a quarter of the world’s crude oil is shipped. If last week’s attack had caused a major spill or actually sunk the M Star, the price of oil would have to go up as shipping out of the Gulf would be slowed, reduced and insurance costs would skyrocket. An extended campaign that could have the effect of driving up the cost of oil at a time when the US and Europe are struggling with fragile, damaged economies would be disastrous, even if operationally it met with little success.

M. Star: Ayyub Al Tayshan?

Privately, U.S. officials have expressed skepticism about the al Qaeda-affiliated group's claim of responsibility. They say that while the investigation isn't finished, the visible damage to the tanker hull is more consistent with a collision than a terrorist attack.
a Dolphin class submarine have passed through Suez. here A report in the London Sunday Times 30 May said that Israel was placing submarines off the coast of Iran. According to the report, three submarines have already arrived in the Persian Gulf, and one will be permanently stationed there. The deployment is Israel's response to Iran's development of ballistic missiles, the report said.
"After midnight last Wednesday, the martyr hero Ayyub Al Tayshan blew himself up in the Japanese oil tanker M. Star in the Strait of Hormuz between the U.A.E. and Oman,"In a statement posted on a militant website and dated Aug. 2, by the Abdullah Azzam Brigades.

M. Star: :military expert hired by mol

MOL has hired a military expert has been hired to lead the investigation into determining the cause of the VLCC damage. U.S. navy's Bahrain-based fifth fleet team is carrying out diving operations to determine the extent of the damage to the oil tanker M.Star.
The investigation is commissioned by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd.

m. star: Iranian sub? Israeli

Speculation about an attack on a VLCC in the Straits of Hormuz:
The large square dent in the supertanker was caused by a rocket grenade?

Most officials dismissed the idea of a collision with a submarine, because no damaged sub is known to have surfaced. American officials reported no collision with United States submarines in the region. here. U.S. nuclear submarines have been in two collisions in the busy Strait of Hormuz since 2007, one involving a Japanese supertanker and the other a U.S. warship. The Dolphin class is a non-nuclear (SSK) type of submarine developed and constructed by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG (HDW), Germany for the Israeli Navy. It is based on the export-only German 209 class submarines, but heavily modified and enlarged and is thus not seen as a member of the 209 family. The Dolphin boats are considered among the most sophisticated and capable conventional submarines in the world.[1] The Type 209 is a class of diesel-electric attack submarine developed exclusively for export in the late 1960s by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft of Germany. Turkey has 209s. Iran has kilo-class subs,


It could also have been the bull nose end of a jetty at one of the loading ports where the tanker may have come into contact," here

earlier

M. Star: dent from a submarine collision?

U.A.E. port officials examining M. Star said it may have hit a submarine or a mine. earlier

M.Star: U.S. officials are watching the situation closely

Mitsui releases photos of explosion damage

“We have no information the tanker was attacked,” said State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley... The U.S. will continue to monitor developments, Crowley said. An explosion, which “may have been caused by an external attack,” occurred at 5:30 a.m. Tokyo time, injuring one of the crew, Mitsui said in a statement. The vessel, M. Star, was on its way to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates to assess the damage and no oil is leaking, earlier

M.Star: VLCC missile attack in strait of Hormuz?

Vessel's name: M. Star Last updated: Mar 17, 2010
Ex-name(s): Not Applicable IMO number: 9515436
Flag: Marshall Island Call sign: V7QT7
Port of Registry: Majuro Summer DWT: 299994 MT
Type of vessel: Oil Tanker Built: Dec 04, 2008
Type of hull: Double Hull Owner: Probe Shipping S.A. (Panama)
Class Society: Nippon Kaiji Kyokai Operator: MOL Tankship Management (Asia) Pte Ltd

An explosion hit a Japanese oil tanker in the early hours of Wednesday in the Strait of Hormuz near Iran and Oman, and the crew attributed the blast to an attack. A crew member suffered minor injuries and the ship was heading to port to assess the damage, the company said. The impact to the spot Asian crude market was seen as minimal. The ship, the "M. STAR", was loaded with 270,204 tonnes when the incident occurred in waters off Oman, Mitsui O.S.K. said. It said the ship had been bound for Chiba port near Tokyo.
The explosion occurred at around 00:30 a.m. local time on Wednesday (2030 GMT Tuesday), the transport ministry in Tokyo said. The ministry said there had been no reports of piracy in the area.
There was no leakage of oil from the tanker, a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) with 16 Filipino and 15 Indian crew members on board. It was sailing under its own power towards Fujairah port in the United Arab Emirates to check the damage, a spokeswoman for Japan's second-biggest shipper said.
Around 17 million barrels per day of oil flow via the Strait of Hormuz, and Middle East crude accounts for 90 percent of Japan's total imports. The location of the explosion near a lifeboat at the rear starboard side of the ship suggested the blast was unlikely to have been caused by oil on the tanker, Mitsui O.S.K. was quoted as saying by the ministry.
"In addition, a crew member saw light on the horizon just before the explosion, so (Mitsui O.S.K.) believes there is a possibility it was caused by an outside attack," the ministry said in a statement. The impact to the Asian spot crude market could be minimal because the tanker would have taken three weeks to arrive in Japan, traders said. This (event) won't stop the flow of crude, so there will be no impact on what is able to be bought," said a Tokyo-based crude trader. The tanker was carrying around 2.3 million barrels of Qatar Land and Abu Dhabi Lower Zakum crudes, industry sources said. "The impact could be limited if there's no severe damage," said a trader with a northeast Asia refiner when asked about the potential impact of the cargo's diversion on the physical crude market. "If there is a spill, that might be different story. But not a big impact," said another trader.
M.Star - IMO 9515436, flag Marshall Islands, dwt 314016, built 2008.


MOL Tankship Management Ltd. Tokyo, MOL Tankship Management Ltd. (London), and MOL Shipmanagement (Asia) Pte. Ltd. (Singapore) will take responsibility for tanker management operations. Last two overseas companies will be renamed MOL Tankship Management (Europe) Ltd. and MOL Tankship Management (Asia) Pte. Ltd., respectively, and these three companies share a common policy and strategy under the leadership of MOL Tankship Management Ltd. Tokyo.MOL Tankship,