Salvage armada starts towing stricken Delta Tankers vessel in Red Sea

An armada of European Union warships and salvage vessels began towing a stricken Delta Tankers ship in the Red Sea on Saturday.

The development is part of a second effort to salvage the burning 163,800-dwt Sounion (built 2006) and prevent an environmental catastrophe.

‘Uncontrollable’ fire engulfs offshore vessel, forcing crew to abandon ship

Read more

The crude tanker is still on fire, more than four weeks after it was first attacked by Houthis.

“The tug boats have successfully connected to the vessel and the towing of the MV Sounion to a safe location is in progress,” the European Union’s EUNAVFOR Aspides naval force said in a social media post on Sunday.

Sources had told TradeWinds as early as Saturday that the vessel was being towed to a position safer from the Yemeni rebel group further north, where the flames still raging on and below its deck will be put out.

Images posted by EUNAVFOR Aspides on X showed three warships escorting the 10,000-bhp Aigaion Pelagos (built 2010) and two other salvage vessels as they steamed to the Sounion.

The Aigaion Pelagos, which is controlled by Piraeus-based Megatugs, was joined by the company’s anchor-handling salvage tug Panormitis, which has firefighting and oil-spill recovery capabilities.

The EU images also showed flames continuing to emanate from the Sounion, which was first attacked on 21 August — about a week before Houthi militants boarded the abandoned ship and used explosives to set its deck vents alight.

According to sources, there is no imminent structural reason for the fire to cause the ship to sink as the flames have not reached its cargo.

Some spillage observed from the Sounion concerns fuel that leaked out after its engine was hit by a Houthi missile.

TradeWinds reported on Thursday that the Aigaion Pelagos and other vessels were en route to the stricken Sounion with the purpose of removing the tanker from its current position and later reloading its cargo in a ship-to-ship transfer at a different location, possibly near the Suez Canal.

EUNAVFOR Aspides, the EU operation set up to counter the Houthi threat in the Red Sea, later confirmed that its warships would protect the operation.

It is the second effort to salvage the Sounion after safety concerns led salvors to pull out of a 1 September attempt.

“The salvage operation of the MV Sounion is essential in order to avert a potential environmental disaster in the region,” the operation said during the weekend, describing the effort as a “complex operation [that] consists of various phases”.

“To achieve this, several public and private actors are working together. EUNAVFOR Aspides assets have been actively involved in this complex endeavor, by creating a secure environment, which is necessary for the tugboats to conduct the towing operation.”

The Greek-flag Sounion is classed by China Classification Society and insured by Gard, according to Equasis.