By Siddharth Cavale NEW YORK, May 14 (Reuters) - Oil prices ended little changed on Thursday after Iran's state media said about 30 vessels had crossed the Strait of Hormuz, though attacks on one ship and the seizure of another kept stoking concerns over the flow of energy supplies during the Iran war.

Iran’s push to charge merchant shippers for passage through the Strait of Hormuz under threat of violence could spread to other parts of the world, maritime experts said this week. The problem arises if there is any normalization of Iran’s actions in creating a passageway that requires ships to provide their information,

Iran claims it has deployed small submarines as an "invisible guardian" of the Strait of Hormuz, but analyst says the vessels pose limited strategic threat.

Admiral Brad Cooper of U.S. Central Command told the Senate Armed Services Committee that U.S. forces have destroyed more than 90% of Iran's inventory of 8,000 naval mines.

The development comes as maritime traffic through the strategic waterway remains sharply lower than normal because of the ongoing regional conflict and rising threats to commercial shipping.