Dubai, United Arab Emirates – An oil tanker off the Saudi Arabian port city of Jiddah was attacked on Monday by a smaller “booby-trapped boat” rigged with explosives, causing a small fire on the ship, Saudi state television reported.
The unnamed official did not identify any suspects, but noted the seriousness of such criminal acts and the threat they pose to shipping traffic, the security of oil exports and the freedom of world trade, in addition to the environmental consequences of possible gas or oil industry. leakage.
Earlier, a shipping company said the tanker suffered an explosion after being hit by “an outside source,” suggesting that another ship had been attacked amid Saudi Arabia. years of war in Yemen.
Tommy Chia / AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHER SG / AP
The attack on the Singapore-flagged BW Rhine, launched by the trading arm of the massive Saudi Arabian Oil Co. of the kingdom, marks the fourth attack on Saudi energy infrastructure in a month. It also apparently closed the port of Jiddah, the main shipping point for the kingdom.
The attack renews concerns about the safety of ships in the Red Sea, a crucial transit zone for global shipping and energy supplies that had largely avoided the chaos of regional tensions with the US and Iran last year.
The BW Rhine was docked in Jiddah on Saturday, transporting more than 60,000 tons of unleaded gasoline from an Aramco refinery in Yanbu for consumption in the kingdom, according to data analysis company Refinitiv. It was there that the incident appears to have taken place.
The vessel was “hit by an outside source while unloading,” said Haifna, a tanker company under the BW Group that owns and operates the vessel.
The attack caused an explosion and fire on board the ship, although all 22 sailors on board escaped without injury and firefighters later put out the blaze, Haifna said. Some oil may have contaminated the water along the ship, although the company said it was still assessing the damage.
It took Saudi Arabia hours to recognize the explosion.
The United Kingdom Marine Trade Operations, an organization under the British Royal Navy, urged ships in the area to exercise caution and said investigations were ongoing. It later said that the port of Jiddah had been closed for an “unknown duration,” without elaborating.
Dryad Global, a maritime intelligence company, also reported the explosion. The US Navy’s 5th Fleet, which patrols the Middle East, did not respond to a request for comment.
The explosion comes after a mine detonated last month and damaged a ship off Saudi Arabia. Another mysterious attack earlier this month targeted a cargo ship off the small port city of Nishtun in far east Yemen.
Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have previously used naval mines in their long war against a Saudi-led coalition. However, the Houthis have not commented on last month’s attack or Monday’s.
Dryad Global said if it were the Houthis behind Monday’s explosion, it would “represent a fundamental shift in both the target’s capabilities and intent.”
Since mid-November, there has also been what Saudi Arabia described as a bomb-laden drone boat attempting to attack Jazan, as well as a cruise missile attack claimed by the Houthis that hit an Aramco oil facility in Jiddah. Monday’s description of the incident from the Ministry of Energy showed that another drone boat may have been deployed to attack the BW Rhine.
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The incidents come after tensions between the US and Iran saw a series of escalating incidents in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the nearby Gulf of Oman last year. Although the US has formed a new coalition to monitor shipping there after those incidents, it does not operate in the Red Sea.
In recent weeks, an attack in Iran killed a prominent scientist who founded Tehran’s military nuclear program two decades ago, an attack believed to have been carried out by Israel.
The attack pushed up oil prices, which had already risen in recent days when Western countries began distributing coronavirus vaccines. Benchmark Brent oil was above $ 50 a barrel during trading on Monday.
The Red Sea, with the Suez Canal to the north and Bab el-Mandeb Strait to the south, is a vital shipping route for both cargo and global energy supply. The currents change seasonally and now run north. Saudi Arabia recently accused the Houthis of dumping mines in the southern Red Sea that could be transported to Jiddah.
The Red Sea has been mined before. According to a UN panel of experts investigating the war in Yemen, in 1984 about 19 ships reported that mines had been hit, only one of which was ever recovered and disarmed. Any new mining could endanger global shipping and be difficult to find for a minesweeping operation, increasing the risks and possibly the cost of insurance for those sailing in the region.
“The series of escalations in the Red Sea will certainly raise the risk profile of the region,” said Ranjith Raja, head of oil and shipping research in the Middle East and North Africa at Refinitiv. “This, in turn, could also increase insurance premiums for additional protection of ships operating in the region, which would impact shipping costs.”