DUBAI, Jan 27 (Reuters) – Commodities dealer Trafigura mentioned on Saturday it was assessing the safety dangers of additional Purple Sea voyages after firefighters put out a blaze on a tanker attacked by Yemen’s Houthi group a day earlier.
Associated Information: Fireplace Out On ‘Marlin Luanda’ After Houthi Missile Strike
The U.S. navy mentioned a U.S. Navy ship and different vessels supplied help after the Marlin Luanda was hit by a Houthi anti-ship missile.
“No additional vessels working on behalf of Trafigura are presently transiting the Gulf of Aden and we proceed to evaluate rigorously the dangers concerned in any voyage, together with in respect of safety and security of the crew, along with shipowners and prospects,” a Trafigura assertion mentioned.
Some delivery firms have suspended transits by way of the Purple Sea, which is accessed from the Gulf of Aden, and brought for much longer, costlier journeys round Africa to keep away from being attacked by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi group, which started launching waves of exploding drones and missiles at vessels on Nov. 19 in response to Israel’s navy operations in Gaza.
The Houthi assaults have primarily focused container vessels transferring by way of the Purple Sea. Many gasoline tankers have stored utilizing the route.
A notable exception is QatarEnergy, the world’s second largest exporter of liquefied pure gasoline, which earlier this month stopped sending tankers by way of the Purple Sea, citing safety issues.
Over a number of hours early on Saturday the Marlin Luanda’s crew battled a blaze in a single cargo tank on the vessel’s starboard facet, Trafigura’s mentioned in a press release.
By Saturday afternoon, the blaze was extinguished and all crew have been secure, Trafigura mentioned.
“The vessel is now crusing in direction of a secure harbor,” Trafigura mentioned, including that the firefighting effort had been supported by Indian, U.S. and French navy vessels.
The Marshall Islands-flagged Marlin Luanda issued a misery name on Friday and reported harm, U.S. Central Command mentioned in a submit on X, previously Twitter. The united statesCarney and different coalition ships have been offering help to the tanker, it mentioned.
India’s navy deployed INS Visakhapatnam, a guided missile destroyer, after receiving a misery name from the Marlin Luanda, which had 22 Indian and one Bangladeshi crew on board, an Indian Navy spokesman mentioned.
The tanker was carrying Russian naphtha bought under the value cap consistent with G7 sanctions, a Trafigura spokesperson mentioned on Friday.
U.S. and British warplanes, ships and submarines have responded to the Houthi assaults onshipping in current weeks with dozens of retaliatory strikes throughout Yemen towards Houthi forces.
About eight hours after the Marlin Luanda incident, the U.S. navy destroyed a Houthi anti-ship missile that was aimed into the Purple Sea and able to launch, Central Command mentioned.
The missile “introduced an imminent menace to service provider vessels and the U.S. Navy ships within the area,” it mentioned.
The Houthis’ Al-Masira tv mentioned on Saturday that the USA and Britain launched two air strikes that focused the port of Ras Issa, Yemen’s major oil export terminal.
It was not clear if this was the strike referred to by Central Command, and the U.S. Fifth Fleet didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The British Defence Ministry declined to remark.
(Reporting by Muhammad Al Gebaly, Nilutpal Timsina, Krishn Kaushik and Manoj KumarWriting by Andrew MillsEditing by Jason Neely, Frances Kerry and Giles Elgood)
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