Yemen Monitor/Newsroom:
An unladen liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker is sailing through the Red Sea en route to Yemen and the Gulf of Aden and is set to be the second vessel of its kind to make this passage so far this year.
LNG tankers have largely avoided taking the Red Sea route after Yemen-based Houthi militants began attacking ships since November 2023 in support of Palestinian militants in Gaza fighting Israel.
Ship tracking data from Limited Economics & Associates and Kpler showed the Liberian-flagged Trader 3 crossed the Suez Canal on February 14 and is approaching the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Tuesday.
This is only the second vessel to sail this route since June 2024, after the Salalah LNG delivered a cargo from Qalhat in Oman to the Marmara Ereglisi LNG terminal in Turkey on February 14.
Last June, the Asia Energy sailed through the Red Sea in the same week that Houthi militants sank their second ship.
The Suez Canal connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, creating the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia, and is connected to the Gulf of Aden via 1 the Bab el-Mandeb Strait between Yemen and Djibouti.
Kpler and LSEG data did not specify the tanker’s destination. The tanker’s last cargo was in the Brazilian port of Sergipe for delivery to Izmir in Turkey on January 29.
