Here’s What We Know About the Oil Tanker Stuck in the Red Sea

A Greek oil tanker is stuck in the Red Sea after it was attacked by Houthi rebels, an Iran-backed militia group that controls swathes of northern Yemen and has disrupted crucial shipping lanes in a show of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

The MV Delta Sounion has been immobilized for more than a week, making it a sitting duck for further attacks while also raising fears of an environmental disaster. The tanker was carrying the equivalent of one million barrels of crude oil.

The Sounion, its crew evacuated, currently sits in waters patrolled by Houthi vessels. The Houthis have said they will allow a rescue mission, but moving the ship will be precarious.

Here’s what we know about the stuck tanker.

How did the ship get stuck?

The MV Delta Sounion was sailing through the southern Red Sea when it came under attack from vessels controlled by Houthi fighters on Aug. 21, according to the European Union’s naval mission in the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Gulf.

No crew members were killed or injured, but the ship lost engine power during the attack, the naval mission said on social media. The crew of 23 Filipino and two Russian sailors was evacuated to Djibouti, a country on the Horn of Africa.

During the rescue, the naval mission’s ship spotted an unmanned vessel nearby, and immediately destroyed it. In past attacks, Houthi rebels have used remote-controlled boats that have rushed at vessels, causing explosive collisions.

The Sounion, flying a Greek flag and managed by the Greek shipping company Delta Tankers, had been traveling from Iraq to Greece, according to a briefing from the Pentagon. Now, it poses a navigational hazard to other ships passing through the area, the Pentagon said.

In a statement on Thursday, Greece’s foreign minister, George Gerapetritis, said he had spoken to his counterpart in Saudi Arabia, which has a coast along the Red Sea, “to ensure the safest possible management of this issue.”

What is the environmental risk?

The ship’s cargo contains 150,000 tons of crude oil, or more than a million barrels. What’s worse, the stranded ship has been on fire since Aug. 23, posing an “imminent threat of regional pollution,” the European Union naval mission said.

On Wednesday, aerial images of the Sounion showed several fires on the deck. While there is no apparent oil leak yet, the Pentagon raised concerns on Tuesday that the stranded vessel represented a “potential environmental catastrophe.” (The U.S. State Department has said the spill of a million barrels of oil would be four times the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska.)

International naval forces and agencies are working together to determine how to move the nearly 900-foot-long tanker.

Why are the Houthis attacking ships?

The Houthis are a group of Shiite militants who have fought Yemen’s government for more than two decades. With the support of Iran, the group now controls large swathes of northern Yemen and it has become the de facto government in the Gulf country. The U.S. designated the group a terrorist organization in February.

In recent years, the group has been targeting vessels traveling in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, a crucial gateway for global shipping through the Suez Canal. After Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza, the Houthis pledged their solidarity to the Palestinian people, stepping up attacks on ships and disrupting international shipping lanes.

On Wednesday, a Houthi spokesman, Mohammed Abdulsalam, told Iranian media that it would allow the retrieval of the Sounion, acquiescing to requests from several countries. Iran’s mission to the United Nations confirmed the decision, adding that the group had consented because of humanitarian and environmental concerns.

Still, Houthi leaders have vowed to continue their campaign to disrupt shipping lanes, according to the Site Intelligence Group, which tracks extremist organizations.

“These are simply reckless acts of terrorism which continue to destabilize global and regional commerce, put the lives of innocent civilian mariners at risk, and imperil the vibrant maritime ecosystem in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, the Houthis own backyard,” Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said during a news briefing on Tuesday.

Ephrat Livni contributed reporting.