Red Sea Ship Traffic Drops Sharply After Houthi Attack On Saudi Oil Facilities

Ship traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait dropped to its lowest level in months on Sunday after Yemen’s Houthis attacked Saudi oil facilities along the Red Sea coast.

At the same time, vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remained low over the weekend despite a pause in U.S. and Iranian strikes, according to shipping data from Kpler released on Monday.

Only 11 commodity vessels passed through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Sunday, the fewest in months, Kpler data showed.

Shipping in the Red Sea has been disrupted off the coast of Yemen since last week by the Tehran-aligned Houthis, who say they want to blockade Saudi exports.

The disruption has also pushed physical crude prices in the Middle East, Europe and Africa to their highest levels in two months.

Seven of the 11 vessels that transited the Bab el-Mandeb on Sunday were oil tankers. Three entered the Red Sea, including two very large crude carriers (VLCCs) heading to the Saudi port of Yanbu to load crude oil. The third was a Russian-linked vessel.

Four tankers left the Red Sea on Sunday, including the Hong Kong-flagged VLCC New Explorer, which was carrying 2 million barrels of Saudi and Emirati crude to Ningbo in eastern China, according to Kpler.

Another tanker was carrying 1 million barrels of Russian crude to China, while a third was transporting about 750,000 barrels of Saudi crude to Pakistan.

Another Hong Kong-flagged VLCC, New Pearl, carrying 2 million barrels of Saudi crude, was also leaving the Red Sea through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait for Zhoushan in eastern China. It was the fourth Chinese supertanker to depart since the Houthis declared a naval blockade.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said on Saturday that the group had struck facilities belonging to Saudi state oil company Aramco in the cities of Jizan and Yanbu.

Hormuz Traffic Remains Limited

Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz also remained low over the weekend, according to Kpler.

Fewer than 10 commodity vessels passed through the strategic waterway each day over the weekend, even though the United States and Iran have paused strikes in the Middle East.

Seven vessels transited the strait on Sunday, including three Iranian-linked oil products tankers that exited the waterway.

On Saturday, only three vessels passed through the strait, all with their transponders switched off. They included a VLCC heading to Qatar to load crude oil, a liquefied petroleum gas tanker bound for the UAE’s Ruwais port to load cargo, and a tanker carrying Qatari naphtha that was sailing to Japan.

On Friday, seven vessels passed through the strait, most of them leaving the Gulf. They included two VLCCs carrying crude oil from Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, along with a tanker carrying fuel oil.

Shipping activity through both the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz remains below normal as security concerns continue to affect two of the world’s key oil shipping routes.

Reference: Reuters