Oil Tanker Gets Hole in Its Hull as Ships Attacked Off U.A.E.
Oil Tanker Gets Hole in Its Hull as Ships Attacked Off U.A.E.
(Bloomberg) -- An oil tanker got a hole in its hull after being struck by an unknown object off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, where a spate of attacks on oil carriers was reported on Sunday.
The back of the tanker, the Andrea Victory, was damaged on its waterline while at an anchorage at Fujairah, a refueling center for tankers sailing to and from ports in the Persian Gulf. It’s not in danger of sinking, according to Thome Shipmanagement, which manages the carrier.
A video on Twitter showed a vessel with that name and that kind of damage looking steady in the water. An external spokesman for Thome declined to comment on the images.
While nobody has claimed responsibility for causing the damage -- or several similar incidents on Sunday -- there are heightened tensions across the Middle East right now. The U.S. is trying to prevent Iran from exporting crude while Saudi Arabia is pledging to cover any shortfalls in supply from its rival from across the Persian Gulf.
The vessel that suffered a hole in its hull is a so-called Handymax tanker that would normally carry about 330,000 barrels of cargo. A U.A.E. government official had already identified it as one of four that were targeted in an attack off Fujairah on Sunday.
Modern tankers have double hulls, meaning that even if the outer one is pierced, they should stay afloat.
Thome informed local authorities and the ship’s crew is helping with ongoing investigations. The crew is unharmed.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alaric Nightingale in London at anightingal1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaric Nightingale at anightingal1@bloomberg.net, Brian Wingfield, Rachel Graham
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