The United Nations is still waiting for Yemen’s Houthi group to allow the deployment of an assessment team to a decaying oil tanker that is threatening to spill 1.1 million barrels of crude oil.
The UN environment chief said that “time is running out” to prevent an environmental, economic and humanitarian catastrophe from a deteriorating oil tanker loaded with 1.1 million barrels of crude oil that is moored off Yemen.
A total of six pirates attacked a Stolt Tankers tanker, named Stolt Apal, 75 nautical miles off Yemen’s coast on May 17.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen informed that it foiled an imminent terrorist attack against an oil tanker off Yemen’s coast, on the Arabian Sea. The attack took place as the tanker was sailing about 90 nautical miles southeast of Nishtun port, Tuesday.
Naval forces from the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen on February 23, claimed that they foiled an “imminent terrorist” attack by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in the southern Red Sea, a major commercial shipping channel.
RMI issued a ship security advisory to shipping, warning that the conflict in Yemen continues to pose potential risk to RMI-flagged vessels transiting the southern Red Sea, Bab el Mandeb Strait, and Gulf of Aden, despite the current limited cease-fire between the Houthis and the Saudi Arabian-led coalition.
Houthi rebel forces released two Korean vessels and one Saudi tug that they had captured near Hodeidah earlier this week, after South Korea deployed a destroyer and called for American assistance. Earlier this week, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition backing the Yemeni government reported that Houthi rebels boarded a tug off the coast of Hodeidah and sources said that the tug has been brought to the Houthi-controlled seaport of Salif, just north of Hodeidah.
Total, the French energy giant and LNG player, is aiming to restart LNG production at the Balhaf facility operated by Yemen LNG in the future, in which Total has an interest of 39.6%. In April 2015, the Yemen LNG plant was forced to switch to preservation mode, due to the ongoing conflict in Yemen and growing insecurity around the Balhaf site. Total notes that its actions since then intended to ensure the safety of local employees, and further preserve the Balhaf site so that it can resume LNG production once peace is been restored in the country.
UN scientists have been refused again permission by Houthis to visit the deserted oil tanker ‘SAFER FSO’, moored off Hodeidah, Yemen, which is described as a “floating bomb” with the potential to create an environmental disaster, experts say.
Humanitarian Affairs Chief Mark Lowcock alerted the UN Security Council that an aging oil tanker moored outside Yemen’s Hodeidah port was at risk of exploding. The moored tanker was close to Yemen’s recently demilitarized Hodeidah port. During his speech, he highlighted that ‘The spill could reach from Bab el Mandeb to the Suez Canal, and potentially as far as the Strait of Hormuz.’
