Saudi Arabia announced a temporary halting of all oil shipments through the Red Sea shipping lane of Bab al-Mandeb, after Houthis rebels attacked two Saudi Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) in the Red Sea on Wednesday morning, slightly damaging one of them, according to an official statement by Minister Khalid al-Falih.
Both tankers that were attacked were operated by Saudi shipping company Bahri. Efforts are underway to move the damaged ship to the nearest Saudi port.
The two million barrels capacity for each tanker were full of crude oil cargo at the time and were headed for export. One of the VLCCs sustained minimal damage. Fortunately, there were no injuries or oil spill that would have resulted in catastrophic environmental damage,
…the minister was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Earlier in the day, Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for an attack on an unidentified Saudi tanker off Hodeidah, Yemen.
The incident comes in addition of a series of Houthi attacks on ships off the coast of Yemen, specially on the aftermath of the Saudi coalition’s closure of Red Sea ports back in November.
The Bab al-Mandeb strait, where the Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden in the Arabian Sea, is only 20 km wide, making ships potentially an easy target for piracy and terrorist attacks.
Responding to the threats arising from the conflict in Yemen, BIMCO, ICS and INTERTANKO published in early 2018 a guidance on maritime security in the southern Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb, urging shipowners and operators to be aware of new threat patterns in the area.