Shuttle Tankers Ship Saudi Oil To Asia Via Safer Northern Red Sea Route To Evade Houthi Attacks

Shipowners are assisting Saudi Arabia in exporting its crude oil to global markets via a much safer northern Red Sea route, as Houthis continue to target its ships sailing via the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the south.

State-owned Saudi Aramco has been using ports like the Sidi Kerir in the Mediterranean Sea for exporting oil after Houthis began to target ships which had loaded at the Red Sea export terminal at Yanbu.

In the last month, ships under the management of Sinokor, Dynacom and DHT Management AS have been shuttling cargoes from Yanbu to Ain Sukhna, where oil was discharged and piped north.

The shuttling tankers and vessels controlled by the Kingdom have helped make one-way trips out of the Red Sea via the north. This is similar to what the UAE did to transport its crude oil out of the Persian Gulf region via the Strait of Hormuz.

Tanker operators willing to take greater risks are facilitating shuttle tanker movements between Yanbu and Ain Sukhna, so crude supplies can be transported, and Saudi Aramco’s customers can get the crude at Sidi Kerir, not Yanbu.

Exports of Saudi crude through the northern ports of the Red Sea have risen by about a third since the Houthis announced their blockade on July 20, 2026, to 1.1 million barrels a day.

Around 4 tankers have completed the trip from Yanbu to Ain Sukhna twice or more, carrying around 16 million barrels of crude.

Shipping Saudi crude through the Mediterranean Sea means oil tankers have to sail around southern Africa to reach Asian markets, which adds to the operational costs through fuel consumption, given that it takes an extra week to reach there.

Yanbu has been important for Saudi Arabia to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, with the Kingdom rerouting the oil through the East-West pipeline. A few ship owners and charters are risking the trip through the Bab el Mandeb Strait close to Yemen.