LONDON: In a war that has seen tankers in the Gulf and the Red Sea repeatedly targeted, it was clear that a massive oil spill was an environmental disaster just waiting to happen — and that disaster is now unfolding.
On June 30, the Caroline Bezengi, a tanker carrying more than 800,000 barrels of oil, ran aground on an island 50 km off the coast of southern Oman.
The ship, under sanctions by the UK and the EU as a consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, loaded its cargo at Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk in April, and had transited the Suez Canal on May 30.
On June 8, having just exited the eastern end of the Maritime Security Transit Corridor in the Gulf of Aden, and while still in waters off Yemen, it suffered an explosion.
It seems that the tanker sailed out of one war only to fall victim to another.
