LONDON: At least six more oil tankers were steering clear of the southern Red Sea on Monday, as disruptions increase on the vital route for energy shipping in the wake of US-led strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.

Meanwhile, a missile struck a US-owned cargo ship off the coast of Yemen, a British security agency and maritime risk company said, a day after Houthis fired a cruise missile at an American destroyer.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations security agency, run by Britain’s Royal Navy, reported a “vessel hit from above by a missile” in the Gulf of Aden. It did not provide further details.

According to Ambrey, a British maritime risk company, a fire broke out on board the Marshall Islands-flagged, US-owned bulk carrier, but it remains seaworthy and there were no injuries.

United States Central Command identified the ship as the M/V Gibraltar Eagle.

Following the US and British strikes, the US-led Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) based in Bahrain on Friday warned all ships to avoid the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the south end of the Red Sea for several days, tanker body INTERTANKO said.

Prior to the strikes it had been mostly container ships which were avoiding the Red Sea, with oil tanker traffic largely unchanged in December.

But since the CMF’s warning, a growing number of oil tankers are avoiding the region, increasing the potential for disruptions to oil supply via the Suez Canal in both directions.

Reuters on Monday counted six tankers that had altered their course, making a total of at least fifteen vessels to do so since the start of the strikes, ship tracking data from LSEG and Kpler showed.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2024