Maersk Tankers to insist its ships can avoid the Red Sea

Maersk Tankers is to insist its fleet of fuel carriers have the option to avoid the Red Sea following an escalation in attacks on merchant ships in the area.

The decision, set out in a notice seen by Bloomberg, doesn’t mean Copenhagen-based Maersk Tankers ships will dodge the area — and by extension Egypt’s Suez Canal — but it gives the firm discretion to do so.

Houthi militants, aligned with Iran, are attacking vessels with ties to Israel when they pass through the Red Sea, causing insurance costs to increase.

Maersk’s notice opens the door to a practice — extending voyages by thousands of miles to sail around Africa — that could disrupt energy flows were it to be widely adopted in the market. Ships that detour would burn hundreds of tons more fuel and deliver their cargoes days later.

Maersk Tankers is what’s known in the shipping industry as a pool operator, meaning it commercially manages tankers for numerous owners, listing a 131-strong fleet on its website.

The firm is separate to A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, the container shipping giant. One of Moller-Maersk’s vessels came under attack on the area on Thursday, but no damage was reported.

It’s not certain that Maersk Tankers’ ships actually will avoid the Red Sea in practice or for how long. In the past, large tanker companies have veered away from the area for short periods of time, but the extra fuel cost and cargo delays have tended to make such deviations temporary.

A spokeswoman for Maersk Tankers declined to comment.