The FSO Safer Story: How the world gave the Houthis an oil tanker

Every year, Lloyd’s List publishes a list of the world’s Top 100 container ports. And to mark the release of this year’s ranking, we’re taking a deep dive in this week’s episode to understand the key trends seen across the container sector last year, and work out what the rest of the year has in store. In a year defined by disruption, the world’s leading container ports still managed to increase their throughput by 8% - a sharp turnaround from some of the sluggish growth we’ve become accustomed to in recent years. The geopolitical upheaval shipping has had to deal with in the last 18 months has clearly created some winners, as well as some losers that continue to suffer at the hands of Red Sea rerouting and tariff wars. To download the Lloyd’s List Top 100 Ports report, visit www.lloydslist.com/one-hundred-container-ports-2025, where you can see the full list of rankings as well access the data behind it, including regional and country-level analysis. Joining Joshua on this week's podcast are: Linton Nightingale, deputy editor, Lloyd's List Eleanor Hadland, senior ports and terminals analyst, Drewry

Low Earth orbit connectivity doesn’t occupy the same number of column inches as say Houthi terror in the Red Sea, or the climate regulatory tussles at the IMO, but it has arguably changed shipping just as much, if not more. Vessels that have long relied on dependable, but relatively slow internet connectivity now have access to the kind of upload and download speeds used to create this very podcast, thanks in no small part to Elon Musk’s Starlink system, which uses its own constellation of satellites. There’s no doubt this has opened endless doors for both shipowners and seafarers. Data collection and analysis is possible on a scale unimaginable at sea just a decade ago. Crew can now video-call family or stream live sports despite being hundreds of miles from land. But, in a microcosm of society as a whole, this advent of instant connectivity brings with it negatives too, potentially opening the door to would-be hackers who are starting to see shipping as a rich target. Joining Joshua on this week’s podcast are: Daniel Ng, chief executive, CyberOwl Tore Morten Olsen, president of maritime, Marlink Ben Palmer, president, Inmarsat Maritime

WHEN an oil tanker can trade internationally and switch between fictional flags and take on digital identities of ghost ships that were scrapped years ago, there is a problem. Not a fictional problem. A real life, tangible problem that relates to a real ship performing really dangerous operations with zero accountability and, apparently, no means to stop it. In the first edition of this podcast, we detailed how a growing black market of fraudulent ship registers, created by linked networks of international scammers have sprung up. This edition will focus on why these fake flags are just a symptom of a much wider problem. The system is broken. Fixing that system, however, is going to require a root-and-branch reappraisal of how we ensure compliance and oversight in global trade, and it’s going to require governments to be genuinely accountable for the ships they flag. Let’s start with the basics. We know what a fraudulent ship register looks like and what it doesn’t do, but what should a flag be doing? Why does the flag a ship is flying matter? Joining Richard this week are: Bridget Diakun, senior risk and compliance analyst, Lloyd’s List Christian Panto, independent open-source intelligence analyst Alfonso Castillero, chief executive, Liberian International Ship and Corporate Registry

Until fairly recently the government of Malawi were blissfully unaware of the fact that they inadvertently stumbled into a tense political stand-off between Nato and Russia. Ministers in the landlocked capital Lilongwe were understandably surprised to find that they had been enthusiastically registering sanctioned shadow fleet tankers and fixing them up with new identities. They were, initially at least, perplexed by questions regarding a fleet of tankers being used to load crude out of the Baltic, then escorted by Russian naval ships and tracked by the combined surveillance capacity of NATO’s forces. And that’s because they had no idea until Lloyd’s List told them. In this special two-part podcast, Lloyd’s List editor-in-chief Richard Meade explains how the system of ship registration has corrupted to the point that governments are unable to tell the difference between real and fake ship identities; and looks at what it will take to fix that broken system. Joining Richard on this week’s episode are: Polina Ivanova, foreign correspondent, Financial Times Christian Panto, independent open-source intelligence analyst

The EU’s two big green regulations on shipping have had many consequences, whether intended or otherwise. But their original purpose was as a threat. Four years ago the International Maritime Organization had been dragging its feet on agreeing any kind of meaningful limits on CO2 from ships. So Brussels effectively told the regulator: reduce your emissions, or we will. The European Commission extended its emissions trading system to cover half of emissions from voyages to and from the EU. It also pitched a green fuel standard called FuelEU Maritime, which fines companies unless they phase in greener fuels over time. The ETS started at the beginning of 2024 and the first credits are due to be handed over by September 30. FuelEU is being phased in too, with its own set of deadlines in the coming years. Shipping has been preparing ever since. But now the EU could be close to getting its original wish. A global net zero framework for cutting emissions is on its way from the IMO, though it needs to be formally adopted in October. So, now we have a global regime on the horizon, shouldn’t Europe fall into line? The commission has said will consider changing its ways – if it considers the IMO system ambitious enough for the planet. So, what will it do? Joining Declan on this week's podcast are: Magda Kopczyńska, Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, European Commission Simon Bennett, Deputy Secretary General, International Chamber of Shipping

This episode of the Lloyd’s List Podcast was brought to you by Veson. Visit veson.com for more information. MOST end-of-life ships usually meet their demise on the beaches of the Indian subcontinent or Aliaga in Türkiye, with the ship recycling industry not being known for a culture of safety or environmental consciousness. But the long-term efforts of NGOs, regulators, flag states, shipowners and the recycling industry have done much to improve things in recent years. This culminated in the landmark Hong Kong Convention for the safe and environmentally sound recycling of ships entering into force on June 26 this year. Lloyd’s List markets editor Rob Willmington spoke to recycling industry stakeholders to find out why the Hong Kong Convention is so significant and what its implementation means for shipowners. At the same time, we asked following three years of negligible ship recycling because of strong shipping markets, when will the sale of old ships finally start to pick up again? Joining Rob on this week’s episode are: Anil Sharma, chief executive, GMS Tone Knudsen Fiskeseth, principal consultant, Environment Advisory, DNV Nikos Mikelis, chairperson, Ship Recycling Alliance Hitesh Vyas, vice-president Middle East and green recycling coordinator, Wirana

This episode of the Lloyd's List Podcast was brought to you by Veson. Visit veson.com for more information. Moored off Yemen’s coast, the FSO Safer is a decaying supertanker that could have spilled more than a million barrels of oil into the Red Sea. The result would have been an environmental, humanitarian and economic catastrophe. But the UN raised over $50 million to buy a replacement tanker and transfer the oil, only to then see the Houthis take control of both tankers and start using the replacement tanker as a platform to store sanctioned Russian oil. This is part two of the FSO Safer story, in which Lloyd’s List editor-in-chief Richard Meade looks at the bigger picture of Houthi power in the Red Sea. Should we have seen this situation coming? And why does the world continue to underestimate the Houthis, despite repeated warnings from inside Yemen about their capabilities? Joining Richard on this week’s podcast are: Nadwha Al-Dawsari, non-resident fellow at the Middle East Institute Ian Ralby, chief executive, IR Consilium

This episode of the Lloyd's List Podcast was brought to you by Veson. Visit veson.com for more information. This is a story about a ship that has been used as a floating bomb, as political leverage, as an environmental threat. It’s a story about how the international community was convinced into raising $50m to buy a group designated by the US government as terrorists, a ship, and how that ship is being used today to store sanctioned Russian cargoes. And it’s a story about how an Islamist political organization that emerged from Yemen in the 1990s, that barely registered on even regional risk lists a few years ago, has been allowed to rapidly evolve into a powerful military organisation apparently able to defy the combined naval protection capabilities of the Western world. And it’s a story about why that transformation is far from over — and why the threat to shipping is growing. Joining Richard Meade to tell the FSO Safer story are: • Ian Ralby, chief executive, IR Consilium • Tomer Raanan, risk analyst, Lloyd’s List Read the original article by Tomer Raanan here: https://www.lloydslist.com/LL1154126/Exclusive-How-a-UN-purchased-tanker-became-a-Houthi-floating-storage-facility-for-Russian-oil

Amid all of the seemingly endless ups and downs that have dominated 2025 so far, dry bulk, as it always does, just keeps on going, moving some of the world’s most important commodities across our oceans. At the end of last year, the almost unanimous prediction for 2025 was that the dry bulk market wasn’t set for its best year ever. Market fundamentals looked pretty weak, especially from China, which accounts for so much of bulk demand. Have things changed drastically since those predictions were made more than six months ago? So much has happened since the turn of the year after all, with the speed of policy from the White House in the early months of the year almost unprecedented. Joining editor-in-chief Richard Meade this week are: Joshua Minchin, senior reporter, Lloyd’s List Greg Miller, senior reporter, Lloyd’s List

This episode of The Shipping Podcast is brought to you by Veson AI can provide valuable decision-making support in maritime supply chain management and it is not just a dry academic exercise: in this podcast we hear that we should play with it and have some fun along the way Eric Christofferson is Chief Product Officer at Veson Nautical, which is a provider of maritime data and freight management solutions to support global commerce. His experience with AI outside maritime reveal interesting insights in how to approach AI and get the most from it. Eric Christofferson shares his perspective on AI’s role in the maritime industry coming from the fintech industry. There are some interesting differences between them, in particular its management of data standards and information. In this podcast, he discusses how shipping relies heavily on what he calls traditional tools, such as emails and messaging services, saying that managers have to “mine that information and … structure the unstructured data.” In fintech, data is more organised. Algorithms can execute trades based on such parameters as price points and market movements but shipping has not yet reached a level of standardisation that would allow AI to make equivalent decisions. “In this industry, I haven’t seen a clean enough data set for that type of guidance to be given,” Mr Christofferson says. But in this podcast, he is confident that solutions that Veson and others provide offer “really compelling workflows and solutions” that can address this situation, bringing together data from disparate and unstructured sources. He explores whether decisions are better if they are supported by AI and believes it can play an important role in decision making. During the podcast, he offers some practical advice on getting the best out of AI-based decisions, saying that it is important to decide where in a workflow they will add value. This is how Veson approaches its work with clients and within its own organisation when introducing AI across its portfolio of solutions. He also shares why it’s important to avoid “trying to ‘AI’ everything”, why not everything is suitable for an AI solution and how to make using AI fun in an organisation. He tells the podcast that it is important to build trust for AI-generated decisions, describing that process in a similar way to developing a human relationship; “you can trust it, but you verify it,” he says. And because it can streamline data input and communication between systems, it enables people to focus on other decision-making priorities and allows them “to connect with each other at a human level” he says.