Supertankers chart new course to avoid mines trap

Press, 27 June 1987, Page 11

Supertankers chart new course to avoid mines trap

NZPA-Reuter Kuwait Giant supertankers are sailing nearly half-empty from Kuwait’s ports in waters previously shunned as too shallow for laden vessels but ;now vital to keeping the oil lifeline open, Gulf-based shipping sources say.:

They said the narrow deepsea channel that seryes the Gulf Arab Emirate’s oil export terminals round Ahmadi, 32km south of Kuwait city, is now seen as a minetrap.

The sources said oil tankers have abandoned it over the last week, since the fourth tanker in five weeks was holed by a sea mine.

Eighteen United States naval explosives experts, armed with , advanced, detection gear, joined the Kuwait navy this week to check for further mines amid fears that Iran is trying to blockade Kuwait’s oil ports, political sources reported.

They said the search, in which Saudi Arabia has offered to take part according to an American State Department spokesman, had uncovered more mines. No details were given.

The Oil Minister, Sheikh Ali al-Khalifa al-Sabah, said that the investigations would reveal whether the mines were laid deliberately or had broken free of moorings elsewhere in the Gulf. “There are indications in both directions,” he said.

“Supertankers are leaving nearly half-empty — loads are reduced by a third,” said one Gulfbased shipping source. Tankers have to carry lighter cargoes to navigate other routes while experts probe the deepsea outlet. The mine hunt coincides with political opposition in the United States Congress to a Reagan Administration plan to allow Kuwait to put 11 of its 22

tankers under the American flag. This would entitle them to American naval protection in the Gulf.

Kuwait, the main target this year for attacks by Teheran in the so-called “tanker war” extension of the Iran-Iraq ground conflict, has leased three Soviet tankers to help ship its oil.

One of them, the Marshal Chuykov, was the first vessel holed by a sea mine after loading in Kuwait on May 16. It was hit about 30 miles off the Kuwait mainland, as it neared an almost 2km wide bottleneck at the mouth of the deepwater channel leading from Kuwait to international waters. All. four mine victims were struck within half a mile of each other. The Marshal Chuykov, said one shipping source, was left with a 40 sq m hole below the waterline.

Others also had gaping holes, but no casualties were reported.

“It makes the impact of an Exocet look like a pinprick, at least as far as oil tankers hit by Exocets in the Gulf War are concerned,” the source said. Exocets have done relatively little damage to tinkers in the Gulf.

: But an Iraqi attack with d Mirage-fired Exocet missile killed 37 crewmen aboard the United States frigate Stark on May 17, fuelling concern in Washington about being drawninto the Iran-Iraq war if the Kuwait reflagging! deal went ahead.