Grenade attack damages oil tanker

Sanaa: A fire on an oil tanker caused by a rocket-propelled grenade attack by pirates off southern Yemen damaged the ship’s engine room, according to the UK P&I Club, one of the vessel’s insurers.

The Brillante Virtuoso, carrying about one million barrels of fuel oil, was 35km from the port of Aden and was towed into international waters, said Anthony Fielder, a senior claims director for Thomas Miller, the company that manages UK P&I.

“Where you have an immobile oil tanker, you don’t want to get it too near a coast,” Fielder said.