Maersk authorizes oil tankers to avoid the Suez Canal: the Red Sea is too dangerous due to the Houthis
Following a series of attacks on other shipping in the area, Maersk fuel carriers and oil tankers will be given the chance to bypass the Red Sea, extending fuel journeys by thousands of miles.
Maersk said Thursday that its carriers can bypass the Red Sea to avoid potential dangers, according to company correspondence seen by Bloomberg. If carriers choose to bypass the Red Sea, they will also bypass the Suez Canal and add thousands of miles to their journeys, choosing instead to sail around Africa.
This will add days to the journey and burn “hundreds of tons more fuel,” according to Bloomberg . On the other hand, however, it could save on insurance costs which have increased since the Houthis intensified their attacks.
Copenhagen-based Maersk Tankers operates a fleet of 131 ships owned by other companies and is a separate entity from AP Moller-Maersk A/S, which saw one of its ships attacked by Houthi militants on Thursday. The accident caused no damage.
Maersk's decision will not force ships to avoid the Red Sea, but it will give them the option to avoid it. This reflects what happened in the 1970s, during the Yom Kippur war which closed the Suez Canal, forcing ships to circumnavigate Africa.
On Wednesday, a US warship intervened and fired at an incoming drone believed to have been launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels after reports that the oil and chemical tanker Ardmore Encounter had been attacked. The Ardmore was traveling towards the Suez Canal in the Red Sea from India. The event was the latest of at least half a dozen serious attacks against commercial shipping in the Red Sea. Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis have threatened to close the entire area to shipping due to the ongoing Israeli attack on Gaza. The group weeks ago “declared war” on Israel and sent several ballistic missiles towards Israel.
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The article Maersk authorizes oil tankers to avoid the Suez Canal: the Red Sea is too dangerous due to the Houthis comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/maersk-suez-pericolo-houthi/ on Fri, 15 Dec 2023 08:00:58 +0000.