U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 24 January - 21 February 2024

U.S. Navy Office of Naval ... by lawofsea

U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 17 January - 14 February 2024

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U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 16 November – 14 December 2022

U.S. Navy Office of Naval I... by lawofsea

Oman Sets Up Way for Arabian Gulf Oil Exporters to Avoid Strait of Hormuz

Oman Steps Up Plan for Middle East’s Biggest Oil-Tank Farm Bloomberg reports:

Oman’s ambitious goal of building the biggest oil-storage facility in the Middle East is finally progressing, more than seven years after the Gulf sultanate announced the plan.
Oman Tank Terminal Co. has almost finished constructing eight tanks to store crude for a new refinery near the town of Duqm on the Arabian Sea. It’s now pushing ahead with others that could be used by oil companies and traders, according to two people with knowledge of the project. That would eventually increase Duqm’s capacity to at least 25 million barrels, according to OTTCO’s website.
The Ras Markaz Crude Oil Park could provide an alternative for energy traders and exporters eager to avoid the Strait of Hormuz, a choke-point at the mouth of the Persian Gulf that’s seen numerous flareups in recent years, including Iranian seizures of tankers. The Omani facility lies roughly 600 miles (966 kilometers) from the waterway. The United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah, the region’s largest hub with 14 million barrels of commercial crude-storage capacity, is less than 100 miles from Hormuz.
“Crude storage that anybody can use outside the Strait of Hormuz, that can go either east or west, is probably a good thing,” said Alan Gelder, vice president for refining, chemicals and oil markets at consultant Wood Mackenzie Ltd. Iraq and Kuwait, a co-investor in the refinery, might see Duqm as an attractive place to park their crude outside the Gulf, he said.

Of course, Iran's fallback is to use its proxy Houit rebels in Yemen to clog up the Bab al Mandeb chokepoint and the lower end of the Red Sea to screw up shipping through the Suez Canal. OTTC info here:

Ras Markaz Crude Oil Park The first phase of the Ras Markaz Crude Oil Park will be operational in 2021, and will feature storage tanks of different sizes. The total capacity of Phase 01 will be up to 25 million barrels of crude oil of which Duqm Refinery will build and utilize approximately 6 million barrels. The tank storage terminal will feature offshore loading and unloading facilities to cater to Suezmax and VLCC tankers via Single Point Moorings. The terminal will be connected via a 70km pipeline to the Duqm Refinery and a potential of connecting to Oman's Main Oil Pipeline at Nahada 440km away.

Dangers at Sea: Remotely Piloted Explosive Laden Anti-Ship Weapons and the U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report 16 January - 15 February 2017

An interesting report from Chris Cavas at Defense News New Houthi weapon emerges: a drone boat

The Houthi boat that attacked and hit a Saudi frigate Jan. 30 in the Red Sea, reported earlier as a suicide boat, was instead carried out by an unmanned, remote-controlled craft filled with explosives, the US Navy’s top officer in the Mideast said.

“Our assessment is that it was an unmanned, remote-controlled boat of some kind,” Vice Adm. Kevin Donegan, commander of the Bahrain-based US Fifth Fleet and head of US Naval Forces Central Command, told Defense News in an interview here Saturday.

The attack on the frigate Al Madinah appears to be the first confirmed use of the weapon which, Donegan said, represents a wider threat than that posed by suicide boats and shows foreign interests are aiding the Houthis.

Read the whole article, which reflects an opinion that those "foreign interests" are Iranian:

The unmanned boat was likely supplied by Iran, Donegan said.

“I don’t know that it’s Iranian-built, but I believe that it’s production in some way was supported by Iran,” Donegan said.

Why would Iran do this (in addition to just making trouble)? I had thoughts earlier Missile Attacks Off Yemen and the Iran- Saudi Proxy War for Oil Shipping Chokepoints and Fun with Iran: Iran "Naval Ambitions".

Recall that the Bab el Mandeb Strait is a vital choke point (as pointed out in the Cavas article) or as the U.S. Energy Information Administration sets out:

Closing the Bab el-Mandeb Strait could keep tankers in the Persian Gulf from reaching the Suez Canal and the SUMED Pipeline, diverting them around the southern tip of Africa.

The U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Intelligence has a warning out here:

Red Sea, Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and Gulf of Aden Commercial vessels in the region of the Red Sea, Bab el Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden should operate under a heightened state of alert as increasing tensions in the region escalate the potential for direct or collateral damage to vessels transiting the region. These threats may come from a variety of different sources such as missiles, projectiles or waterborne improvised explosive devices. Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for an 01 October attack on a UAE vessel. . .

and so to the regular ONI report.

U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report 16 January - 15 February 2... by lawofsea on Scribd

Fun with Iran: "US intercepts multiple shipments of Iranian weapons going to Houthis in Yemen"

CNN reports US intercepts multiple shipments of Iranian weapons going to Houthis in Yemen

American warships have intercepted five shipments of weaponry to the Houthis in Yemen from Iran in the past year and a half, according to US Vice Admiral Kevin Donegan, who is in charge of American naval operations in the Middle East.

The first intercepted shipment was in April 2015 and since then, American ships have intercepted an additional four shipments, Donegan said.
The shipments included thousands of AK-47 automatic rifles, as well as anti-tank missiles and sniper rifles...

You know in case you were wondering about claims that Iran was backing the Houthis. Or about a proxy war for control of the entrance to the Red Sea at Bab el Mandeb.

U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report 13 September - 12 October 2016

Special Warning for the Bab-el-Mandeb chokepoint:

NGA Special Warning 134: Red Sea, Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and Gulf of Aden Commercial vessels in the region of the Red Sea, Bab el Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden should operate under a heightened state of alert as increasing tensions in the region escalate the potential for direct or collateral damage to vessels transiting the region. These threats may come from a variety of different sources such as missiles, projectiles or waterborne improvised explosive devices. Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for an 01 October attack on a UAE vessel. Vessels in the region should report hostile activities immediately and contact coalition naval forces . . .

U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report 13 September - 12 October... by lawofsea on Scribd

Sea Piracy and Armed Robbery at Sea: Not Going Away

Maritime Security firm Nexus Consulting President Kevin Doherty discusses the current state of piracy in this BoombergTV video here. Select transcript portions (my corrections included):

Q: How brave [grave] is the threat of piracy today compared with, say, the time frame around the Captain Phillips kidnapping?

A: I would say it is more prevalent.

On a global scale, definitely the incidences have increased threefold over the past two years.

We have locked down Somali piracy, but we still have Nigeria and Southeast Asia heating up.
***
Q: How much is lost due to piracy disruption each year?

A: Hot [Well over] $100 million [billion] in losses and expenses.

Q: $100 billion?

A: That's right.

Q: Who is paying for that?

A: We all are, really.
***
Q: Are you saying that the Nigerian government is in cahoots?

A: I don't have any direct evidence at this point in time, but i would say that they certainly make it difficult to protect themselves and the commercial vessels.

Interesting viewing and a dose of reality in the world of Nigerian (and SE Asia) piracy/sea robbery. I like Kevin's pointed suggestion that there's a whole lot of corruption going on out there that makes some of the world less safe.

In other news, a claim that there was some pirate-like activity in the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, Pirates Attempt to Hijack Israeli Cargo Ship At Sea:

One of the ZIM shipping company's cargo ships was attacked by pirates Wednesday afternoon in the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, adjacent to Somalia.

Security guards stationed aboard the transport ship repelled the attack by the group of pirates who attempted to abduct the ship while in the middle of open waters.

The incident occurred as the Israeli ship made its way from East Asia back to Israel. The ship sailed into an ambush when two pirate ships snuck up alongside the ZIM vessel, and the pirates attempted to get on board and take control of the ship.

Been a couple of these "attempts" near the Bab recently. Map from the Live Piracy Map site of the ICC CCS IMB.

UPDATE: Nice BBC News report on West Africa piracy here:

***
In most cases of West African piracy, the pirates want the cargo, not the crew.

This means levels of violence are higher than they are off the coast of Somalia, where the pirates need to keep the crew alive in order to obtain ransoms.
***
Underwriters have designated the waters off Nigeria, Togo and Benin a "war risk area", pushing up insurance costs.

This ultimately affects the cost of food, oil and anything else that is transported by sea from West Africa.

BBC News has a documentary on this topic coming up:

Tune in to the BBC World Service at 19:05 GMT on Saturday 15 November to listen to the documentary Chasing West Africa's Pirates. It will also be available to listen to online or as a download.