(Bloomberg) -- A U.K. maritime body said it’s investigating an incident in the Sea of Oman after an oil tanker sent a distress signal to a port in the United Arab Emirates.

Tanker Front Altair was on fire, an official at the U.A.E. port of Fujairah and a person with knowledge of the matter said. The vessel had loaded oil from the Abu Dhabi in the U.A.E. before setting off to sea, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

It wasn’t immediately clear what the cause of the fire was. The "U.K. and its partners are currently investigating,” U.K. Maritime Trade Operations said on its website.

Benchmark Brent crude futures gained as much as 1.8% and were trading at $60.99 a barrel at 10:21 a.m. in Dubai.

Four vessels, including two Saudi oil tankers, were sabotaged near the Persian Gulf last month in what the U.S. said was an Iranian attack using naval mines, a charge Tehran denied.

(Updates with details on ship’s oil load.)

--With assistance from Abbas Al Lawati and Bruce Stanley.

To contact the reporters on this story: Verity Ratcliffe in Dubai at vratcliffe1@bloomberg.net;Anthony DiPaola in Dubai at adipaola@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Justin Carrigan

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