Panamanian-flagged oil tanker hit by two missiles in the Red Sea

As the Greek-flagged tanker MV Sounion burns in the southern Red Sea, Iran-backed Houthi militants targeted two ships with missiles and drones at the critical maritime chokepoint on Monday.

Reuters reports that the projectiles hit a Panama-flagged oil tanker and a commercial vessel. Security firm Ambrey confirmed that the tanker was hit by two missiles, with sources indicating the tanker is named “Blue Lagoon I”.

Ambrey and the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said the tanker was hit by missiles about 70 nautical miles northwest of Yemen’s port of Saleef. The merchant ship was struck about 50 nautical miles off Hodeidah in Yemen.

The security firm said it “assessed that the tanker was targeted due to the company’s affiliation with a vessel that calls at Israeli ports.”

Monday’s attack comes as the world braces for what could be one of the worst tank spills of this century. The Sounion tanker remains on fire and may be leaking oil.

Here’s what’s new about Sounion:

Maritime News Service Splash 247 noted the parallels between the Sunion and FSO Safer incidents. In recent years, a projected oil spill map has been published for FSO Safer due to the risk of a spill from the tanker anchored in the Red Sea. Fortunately, the cistern was emptied last year, preventing a leak. However, that spill map could serve as a guide for assessing the potential impact if a spill from Sounion materializes.

Sunion carries 150,000 tons of crude oil from Iraq. The badly damaged ship risks spilling four times more oil than the Exxon Valdez, perhaps the most famous tanker victim, potentially becoming the fifth-worst oil spill of all time, according to statistics compiled by the International Federation of Oil Pollution Owners. Tanker (ITOPF).

The vessel carries a similar amount of oil to the FSO Safer and is in a similar location to that vessel, prompting shipping consultant Lars Jensen to highlight the potential environmental catastrophe unfolding in the Red Sea today.

Splash has repeatedly reported on the United Nations operation to remove FSO Safer from Yemeni waters. Last year, the UN bought a Euronav tanker and managed to empty FSO Safer’s rusty and abandoned cargo of 1.14 million barrels of crude oil.

Carrying more than 1.1 million barrels of oil, the FSO Safer was abandoned off Yemen’s Red Sea port of Hudaydah after the outbreak of the country’s civil war in 2015. Since then, the vessel has deteriorated significantly in the absence of any maintenance or maintenance, raising fears. of a major environmental disaster

To fund the FSO Safer operation, the UN issued a report outlining the consequences if the FSO Safer situation was not resolved.

“Now, that study can be seen as a reasonable proxy for the consequences of a major Sounion spill, given that both the geographic location and the amount of oil involved are almost the same,” wrote Jensen, who runs Copenhagen-based Vespucci Maritime. in a LinkedIn post today.

According to the UN report, the impact of the FSO Safer oil spill would have devastated fishing communities on Yemen’s Red Sea coast, where 500,000 people make their living from the fishing industry with 1.7 million dependents.

Desalination plants on the Red Sea coast could be shut down, cutting off water supplies for millions, the UN report warned, adding that oil could wash up on the shores of Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia.

The UN has estimated that the cleanup bill for a possible FSO Safer disaster could reach $20 billion, just $1 billion less than Yemen’s annual GDP.

“It raises the question of whether or not it is ethically prudent to operate large oil tankers through the area under the current circumstances,” Jensen mused.

Pictured below, from the UN report on FSO Safer, whose precarious circumstances were very similar to those of Sounion, are maps showing areas at risk using colors to indicate how much oil is expected to surface at different places and times . Harbors are marked with black dots and water treatment plants are marked with blue dots.

The Houthis have targeted more than 80 merchant ships with missiles and drones since Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza began in October. This ongoing turmoil in the Red Sea shows how the West’s “credibility and deterrence” is rapidly eroding.

Where is the righteous outrage from environmentalists? Thousands of tons of crude oil will now pour into the Red Sea.
This is a clear sign of the collapse of American credibility and deterrence. Letting the Iranian proxy Houthis shut down a major sea lane is an epic fail.… https://t.co/ThmzZ5FAED

— ErikDPrince (@realErikDPrince) August 24, 2024

This perceived weakness could only encourage China to escalate disputes in the South China Sea, which, by the way, was seen over the weekend (read: “South China Sea flashpoint: Philippines accuses China of ‘intentionally ramming’ Coast Guard ship”).

By Zerohedge.com

More top reads from Oilprice.com