Just before midnight on October 3rd 2020, the ten year old, Maltese flagged, Greek owned, Aframax tanker - MV Syra suffered an explosion and damage to her forward section, whilst taking on crude at the Bir Ali crude single buoy mooring system, located in central Yemeni waters. The explosion was thought to have been caused by a sea mine or floating improvised explosive device.

 Today Shoreline’s Captain Thomas Brown was joined by Cormac McGarry and Ashley Halabi of Control Risks to analyze the news of this attack on one of Shoreline’s client vessels.

News reports have further suggested that significant pollution may have been caused by the explosion whilst a number of floating objects reported in the vicinity of the tanker were reported to have subsequently exploded.

This is a worrying development in maritime security for vessels navigating and operating within the Gulf of Aden and Yemeni waters.

Shoreline acts as COFR guarantor for much of the petroleum cargo shipped from this part of the world to the US and hopes this podcast will provide useful insight and information to their clients operating in this particularly volatile part of the world.

Cormac McGarry - Senior Analyst, Maritime - Control Risks 

Cormac is part of a specialised analytical team, spread across the world, dedicated to global, international and supranational issues where his primary responsibility is to manage Control Risks’ maritime intelligence and security services. 

Ashley Halabi - Researcher, Middle East and North Africa - Control Risks

Ashley contributes to analysis of political, security and operational risks in the Middle East and North Africa and leads on Lebanon and Yemen. She writes analysis on political and security developments and their implications for commercial activities. She also contributes to bespoke consulting reports for clients in a range of sectors and jurisdictions. Ashley monitors and logs incidents related to civil unrest, terrorism and war in the Middle East and North Africa.