Fears of Iranian Attacks : Tankers Poised for Right Moment to Dash Up Gulf

An oily gray smudge appears to hang menacingly over the metallic waters of the Gulf of Oman, where a line of oil tankers rolling gently at anchor stretches from one end of the horizon to the other.

The ships have come to Khawr Fakkan, a tiny but picturesque port in the emirate of Sharjah, not to trade or even visit, but merely to wait.

Khawr Fakkan lies just southeast of the Strait of Hormuz, and its attraction derives from its position as the first safe port facility outside the Persian Gulf. Dozens of ships are moored here as owners back in Rotterdam, Singapore and Oslo weigh the most propitious moment, balancing spot oil markets against the state of warfare between Iran and Iraq, to dash into the gulf to take on a load of petroleum and dash out again.

It seems an unlikely spot for history to be in the making, but over the last few days, crewmen aboard a massive Kuwaiti oil tanker named the Al-Rekkah have been busy on board painting out the Arabic name and replacing it with the legend: “Bridgeton, Philadelphia.”

The renamed Bridgeton, which lies 17 miles off the coast, will thus become the first of 11 Kuwaiti tankers to be converted to American registry under the Reagan Administration’s plan to provide U.S. naval escorts in the gulf for the so-called “reflagged” vessels.

The escort operation will begin July 22, the Administration announced Tuesday in Washington.

Actually, the Bridgeton so far has not been reflagged, presumably because its American captain has not yet arrived. According to shipping officials, the tanker’s Bulgarian skipper is still aboard, and it cannot fly the Stars and Stripes until an American takes command.

While the activities of the Bridgeton and other Kuwaiti tankers are attracting worldwide attention, little of the hoopla has filtered down to this remote corner of the United Arab Emirates.

According to Reagan Administration officials, the 401,382-ton Bridgeton will operate a shuttle service to Kuwait’s offshore oil terminal, ferrying 20% of Kuwait’s crude oil exports to Khawr Fakkan for transshipment to other tankers. Six ships will carry refined Kuwaiti oil products, mostly to Europe, while four other vessels will carry liquid gas to Japan.

While in the gulf, the reflagged ships will be escorted by warships from the U.S. Mideast Force. Lt. Cmdr. Steve Honda, a spokesman aboard the force’s flagship, the LaSalle, said the Mideast Force currently has a strength of nine ships, but he declined to answer other queries.

One reason why the escort operation was delayed may be the continued existence of explosive mines planted in the deep water channel leading to Kuwait’s offshore oil loading platform.

Dozens of Mines

Since March, dozens of mines have appeared in the 25-mile-long, 2-mile-wide channel. Most Western and Arab officials believe the mines were laid by Iranian gunboats, since Iran has been attacking Kuwaiti shipping in an apparent effort to get Kuwait to drop its support for neighboring Iraq in the nearly seven-year-old war with Iran.

“The Iranians have not only found an effective weapon against shipping, but they have decided to use them,” said one European marine salvage executive.

In the past two months, four large oil tankers have hit mines in virtually the same location in the Kuwaiti channel, including a Soviet tanker, the Marshal Chuikov. The Soviets have supplied three tankers to Kuwait and also are patrolling the gulf with naval vessels.

According to a Western military official with knowledge of the gulf, the United States has sent in a team to examine the mines, but so far has not removed them. That task would require special ships or helicopters.

Until the mines are removed, the run to Kuwait remains extremely dangerous, according to shipping executives.

“Most of the ships going to Kuwait are really worried,” said Naryan Shankar, an Indian shipping executive in the nearby port of Fujaira.

In addition to the mines, ships transporting oil from Kuwait face the possibility of attack by Iranian gunboats, which operate out of tiny islands near the Iranian coast. An American-operated tanker, the Peconic, was attacked by an Iranian speedboat last week. It was hit by 18 rocket-propelled grenades, but damage was slight.

The combination of mines and gunboat attacks has made tanker captains avoid the deeper waters of the central gulf and attempt to traverse the shallower waters along the southern shore. There have been two instances of loaded tankers running aground recently.

Ship captains are adopting defensive techniques, such as sailing only at night and carrying a quarter load of petroleum so that they can enter shallower water, according to gulf-based salvage officials.

Despite the presence of the American naval escorts, both shipping officials and diplomats in the region seem convinced that the Iranians will not be deterred from attacking Kuwaiti shipping.

“It wouldn’t surprise me at all if someone fires a rocket launcher at a merchant ship carrying an American flag,” said one Western military analyst. “Why should they stop? I think it is quite likely to happen. I don’t see the Iranians backing off because the Americans are providing an escort.”

The Iranians have made a point of attacking shipping only after Iranian ships have been hit by Iraqi planes. Iranian oil is exported out of the gulf in a shuttle much like the Kuwaiti shuttle. Their chartered vessels stick close to the northern shore.

“After the Iranians are attacked, I think they will really try to make an example of one the American ships,” said a gulf-based salvage executive. “I wouldn’t like to be on one of those ships for anything.”

However, few observers of the gulf war expect Iran to attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping, primarily since Iranian oil exports would be cut off as well.

“We’ve never believed that they can close the straits,” said one military expert. “They can threaten to shoot at ships, but if there is a warship in the vicinity, there is a fair chance it could stop an incoming missile.”

The Reagan Administration has raised an outcry about Iran’s stationing of Chinese-made Silkworm missiles at the entrance and exits to the Strait of Hormuz, saying they threaten the freedom of navigation in the gulf. Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger warned Monday that U.S. forces are ready to attack the missile installations if it looks as if they are trained on Navy ships or the ships under navy protection.

One official in the gulf said, however, that he believes the Silkworm missiles had once been deployed and tested by the Iranians but have now been removed from the positions along the strait.

Except for the new captains, the crews of the soon-to-be American oil tankers are an international potpourri, although shipowners tend to favor the lower paid seamen from such countries as the Philippines, Pakistan and India.

Although they are enormous vessels, the average tanker has only a 30-man crew, with many of their below-deck operations fully automated.

One salvage operator noted that the Iraqi air attack on the U.S. frigate Stark in May killed more seamen, 37, than all the merchant seamen who have been killed by Exocet missile attacks since the start of the war in 1980. With the relatively low casualty statistics and a hazardous duty bonus that doubles what crews are normally paid, the shipping lines have no trouble filling their crew lists in the gulf.

“We have never taken a great notice of the danger,” said Terence Thompson, an Englishman with a broad Yorkshire accent who captains a supply ship in the gulf. “You just go about doing your job. We’d be a pretty sitting duck, but so far we’ve never been bothered.”