From January 1, ships will either have to use a doubly expensive low-sulphur fuel or install potentially risky exhaust-cleaning systems, says Jonathan Saul.

YEMEN and France launched a probe yesterday into a blast which gutted a French-flagged tanker in the Gulf of Aden amid speculation by the owners and French diplomats that the vessel was targeted by terrorists.

French investigators were arriving in Yemen today after a supertanker was gutted by an explosion and fire in a possible terrorist attack.

AN explosion set a French oil supertanker ablaze off the coast of Yemen yesterday, triggering conflicting explanations of an internal blast and a bomb attack from a small boat.