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10/06 05:53
French Tanker Explodes After Boat Rams It Off Yemen, AFP Says
By James Cordahi and Sean Evers
Sana, Yemen, Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- A French oil tanker was rammed by a small boat packed with explosives as it was about to load at a Yemeni port in the Gulf of Aden, Agence France-Presse reported, citing French Vice-Consul Marcel Goncalves.
Yemeni officials said the blast was an accident, the state- owned Saba news agency reported. Eleven of the Lemenbourg's 25 crew members have been rescued from the burning ship; thick smoke is hampering efforts to reach the others, Saba said.
The ship was about to load oil at a terminal close to the town of Al-Shihr in Yemen's Hadramaut province when the explosion occurred, Qatar's Al-Jazeera television news station said. Al- Shihr is about 450 miles east of the port of Aden, where a U.S. warship was attacked in 2000, killing 17 sailors.
``It seems to be an attack in the same style as the USS Cole,'' Goncalves told AFP.
The explosion comes after the U.S. military warned of possible attacks by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. Oil prices are up close to 50 percent this year, partly on concern that conflict in the Middle East will disrupt oil supplies.
The tanker is carrying 300,000 barrels of Iranian crude, which it loaded at Iran's Kharg island in the Persian Gulf, Saba said, citing Yemeni officials.
On Sept. 10, the U.S. Navy said al-Qaeda may attack oil tankers in the Middle East, which produces more than a fourth of the world's crude oil.
Serious Threat
``While the U.S. Navy has no specific details on the timing or means of the planned attack, and there are no indications an attack is imminent, the threat should be regarded seriously,'' commander Jeff Alderson, a spokesman for the U.S. Persian Gulf fleet based in Bahrain, said.
Ship captains should exercise ``extreme caution'' in passageways such as the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf to the open sea, and Bab al-Mandeb at the bottom of the Red Sea, Alderson said in a telephone interview.
Royal Dutch/Shell Group and other international companies shipping oil out of the Persian Gulf have been warned by U.K. intelligence that tankers are becoming target of attack, a person familiar with the matter said.
The U.K. intelligence agency suggested that allied naval forces in the region should escort oil tankers in convoys to deter any attack on oil shipping, the person said.
Iran and Iraq attacked each other's oil tankers during their war in the mid 1980s, eventually leading to U.S. Navy military escorts of tanker exports from other Gulf nations.
About 13 million barrels of crude oil a day is exported by ship through the Persian Gulf, which narrows to 2 mile-wide shipping channels at the Straits of Hormuz, according to the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration.
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French Tanker Explodes After Boat Rams It Off Yemen, AFP Says
By James Cordahi and Sean Evers
Sana, Yemen, Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- A French oil tanker was rammed by a small boat packed with explosives as it was about to load at a Yemeni port in the Gulf of Aden, Agence France-Presse reported, citing French Vice-Consul Marcel Goncalves.
Yemeni officials said the blast was an accident, the state- owned Saba news agency reported. Eleven of the Lemenbourg's 25 crew members have been rescued from the burning ship; thick smoke is hampering efforts to reach the others, Saba said.
The ship was about to load oil at a terminal close to the town of Al-Shihr in Yemen's Hadramaut province when the explosion occurred, Qatar's Al-Jazeera television news station said. Al- Shihr is about 450 miles east of the port of Aden, where a U.S. warship was attacked in 2000, killing 17 sailors.
``It seems to be an attack in the same style as the USS Cole,'' Goncalves told AFP.
The explosion comes after the U.S. military warned of possible attacks by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. Oil prices are up close to 50 percent this year, partly on concern that conflict in the Middle East will disrupt oil supplies.
The tanker is carrying 300,000 barrels of Iranian crude, which it loaded at Iran's Kharg island in the Persian Gulf, Saba said, citing Yemeni officials.
On Sept. 10, the U.S. Navy said al-Qaeda may attack oil tankers in the Middle East, which produces more than a fourth of the world's crude oil.
Serious Threat
``While the U.S. Navy has no specific details on the timing or means of the planned attack, and there are no indications an attack is imminent, the threat should be regarded seriously,'' commander Jeff Alderson, a spokesman for the U.S. Persian Gulf fleet based in Bahrain, said.
Ship captains should exercise ``extreme caution'' in passageways such as the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf to the open sea, and Bab al-Mandeb at the bottom of the Red Sea, Alderson said in a telephone interview.
Royal Dutch/Shell Group and other international companies shipping oil out of the Persian Gulf have been warned by U.K. intelligence that tankers are becoming target of attack, a person familiar with the matter said.
The U.K. intelligence agency suggested that allied naval forces in the region should escort oil tankers in convoys to deter any attack on oil shipping, the person said.
Iran and Iraq attacked each other's oil tankers during their war in the mid 1980s, eventually leading to U.S. Navy military escorts of tanker exports from other Gulf nations.
About 13 million barrels of crude oil a day is exported by ship through the Persian Gulf, which narrows to 2 mile-wide shipping channels at the Straits of Hormuz, according to the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration.
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