LNG Tanker Off Yemen Attacked By Small Boat Fire

It begins in waters off Yemen now? This has been a big fear for global energy prices amid the seven-month long Iran war and Hormuz Strait crisis.

The Houthis have while fighting a war with Riyadh and its coalition in Yemen so far declared that international shipping remains safe, but that only Saudi and Israeli-linked vessels will be targeted.

But on Friday a liquefied natural gas tanker 140 nautical miles southeast of the Yemeni city of Al Mukalla has come under attack.

The emerging circumstances are somewhat unusual, given it wasn’t attacked by drone or missile, but by a small boat, reportedly with seven people on board.

One regional source says, “According to UKMTO, the captain of the LNG tanker reported the approach of a small boat. People aboard the boat fired two shots at the tanker.”

While not exactly looking like a major or destructive attack, it could have been a ‘warning’ situation, or possibly even a small-scale piracy attempt.

But it still brings up the question, is the Gulf of Aden is getting hot again?

Stretching into this past summer, multiple Saudi vessels have been targeted in the Red Sea region, forcing a number of tankers to U-turn, Houthis having at times signaled potentially imposing their own ‘toll system’ for the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

The scheme would potentially be a mirror image of that Tehran is seeking to enforce in the Strait of Hormuz, where it continues to insist that it will settle for nothing less than its own vision of management, including fee collection for “navigation” “environmental” and safety assurance.