• 3 minutes e-car sales collapse
  • 6 minutes America Is Exceptional in Its Political Divide
  • 11 minutes Perovskites, a ‘dirt cheap’ alternative to silicon, just got a lot more efficient
  • 36 mins GREEN NEW DEAL = BLIZZARD OF LIES
  • 7 days If hydrogen is the answer, you're asking the wrong question
  • 17 hours How Far Have We Really Gotten With Alternative Energy
  • 11 days Biden's $2 trillion Plan for Insfrastructure and Jobs

Breaking News:

Oil Prices Gain 2% on Tightening Supply

TotalEnergies’ South Africa Ambitions: Wise or Risky?

TotalEnergies’ South Africa Ambitions: Wise or Risky?

Why would TotalEnergies be risking…

Copper Atoms Key to Sustainable Methanol Production

Copper Atoms Key to Sustainable Methanol Production

Researchers have successfully converted carbon…

Irina Slav

Irina Slav

Irina is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing on the oil and gas industry.

More Info

Premium Content

Oil Tanker Off Yemen Coast Close To Exploding

Houthi tanker

An oil tanker idling off the coast of Yemen may be nearing an explosion, The Guardian reports citing experts and a warning by the UN-recognized Yemeni government.

The government, which is fighting the Houthi rebels with the support of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, wrote in a letter to the UN that the situation is bad and deteriorating, and that there is an “imminent environmental and humanitarian catastrophe in the Red Sea”.

The vessel in question is loaded with some 1 million barrels of crude oil with energy experts fearing that the gas build up might eventually lead to a blast and a spill. A UN team has tried to approach it to assess the situation, but the Houthis who control the area where the tanker is moored have refused to grant them access.

“Until a UN technical inspection takes place it is difficult to determine the precise risk that the vessel poses, however the potential for a serious environmental emergency is clear. An explosion leading to a spill would have a severe effect on the Red Sea marine environment, and on both biodiversity and livelihoods, an emergency made worse because the ongoing conflict would hamper efforts to control and respond to the pollution it would cause,” The Guardian quoted an official from the NGO Conflict and Environment Observatory as saying. Related: Oil Market Prepares For Super Secret Mexico Hedge

The tanker, Safer, is the property of the Yemeni state oil company and before the war was used as both a storage facility and an offloading terminal, The Guardian notes, adding it has a total capacity of 3 million barrels. It has idled since 2015 when the Iran-backed Houthis took control of the area. Experts are particularly concerned with the corrosion rate of the vessel’s hull, which could lead to a leak or a spill.

“If the tanker ruptures or explodes, we could see the coastline polluted all along the Red Sea. Depending on the time of year and water currents, the spill could reach from Bab-el-Mandeb to the Suez Canal, and potentially as far as the strait of Hormuz,” the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, Mark Lowcock told the UN Security Council in June.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:


Download The Free Oilprice App Today

Back to homepage





Leave a comment

Leave a comment




EXXON Mobil -0.35
Open57.81 Trading Vol.6.96M Previous Vol.241.7B
BUY 57.15
Sell 57.00
Oilprice - The No. 1 Source for Oil & Energy News