Iran attacked and set ablaze a fully loaded crude oil tanker at Dubai port’s anchorage, with the strike damaging the vessel’s hull and raising concerns about a possible oil spill.

Dubai authorities said the drone attack caused a fire on board that was extinguished early on Tuesday, hours after the attack was first reported. The attack came hours after Donald Trump warned that the US would obliterate Iran’s energy plants and oil wells if it does not open the strait of Hormuz.

The strike on the Al Salmi tanker is just the latest in a string of assaults on merchant vessels in the Gulf and strait of Hormuz since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran last month. The month-long conflict has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands, disrupting energy supplies and threatening to send the global economy into a tailspin.

Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) said the Al Salmi was struck in an Iranian attack while anchored at Dubai port in the United Arab Emirates, causing a fire onboard and other damage to the vessel. It warned of a possible oil spill in surrounding waters, Kuwaiti state news agency KUNA reported.

Dubai authorities said maritime firefighting teams successfully put out the blaze which was sparked by a drone attack and continued to assess the situation, adding that no injuries were reported and all 24 crew members were safe.

Crude oil prices briefly spiked after Kuwait’s state news agency reported the attack on the tanker, which can carry around 2m barrels of oil worth more than $200m at current prices, but retreated slightly after the Wall Street Journal reported that Donald Trump had told aides he was willing to end the war even if the strait of Hormuz remains closed and that military options were “not his immediate priority”.

Brent crude prices are on course for a 59% surge in March, the largest monthly gain on record due to the war in the Middle East.

The jump in oil and fuel prices has started to weigh on US household finances and become a political headache for Trump and his Republican party ahead of the November midterm elections, having vowed to lower energy prices and ramp up US oil and gas production.

In Dubai, work is under way to assess damage to the tanker, said company KPC. It was loaded with 2m barrels of oil from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, according to data from industry trackers. Its destination was listed as Qingdao, China, according to reports.

Attacks by both sides of the conflict are showing no signs of easing, with fears of a wider conflict growing.

Thousands of soldiers from the US army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division have started arriving in the Middle East, part of a reinforcement that would expand Trump’s options to include the deployment of forces inside Iranian territory, even as he pursues talks with Tehran.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump wanted to reach a deal with Tehran before the 6 April deadline he set last week after extending an earlier deadline he had set for Iran to open the strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that normally carries about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.

With Reuters