Shipping activity through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait dropped sharply on Sunday after Yemen’s Houthis launched attacks on Saudi oil facilities along the Red Sea coast, according to shipping data from Kpler released on Monday.
Only 11 commodity vessels transited the Bab el-Mandeb on Sunday—the lowest daily traffic recorded in months—while ship movements through the Strait of Hormuz remained subdued over the weekend.
Red Sea traffic has been disrupted off the coast of Yemen since last week by the Tehran-aligned Houthis, who want to blockade Saudi exports, expanding the U.S.-Iran conflict that has already choked oil supply through the Strait of Hormuz.
The shipping disruption caused prices of physical crude cargoes in the Middle East, Europe and Africa to jump to two-month highs last week.
Oil Shipments Continue Amid Rising Risks
Seven of the vessels that passed through Bab el-Mandeb were oil tankers with three of them entering the Red Sea. Two of them are very large crude carriers (VLCCs) heading to the port of Yanbu to load Saudi crude while the third is a Russian-linked ship, the data showed.
The four vessels that exited the Red Sea on Sunday included the Hong Kong-flagged VLCC New Explorer carrying 2 million barrels of Saudi and Emirati crude for eastern China’s Ningbo port, a tanker carrying 1 million barrels of Russian crude for China and a tanker with about 750,000 barrels of Saudi crude onboard for Pakistan, the data showed.
Another Hong Kong-flagged VLCC New Pearl carrying 2 million barrels of Saudi crude is exiting the Red Sea via Bab el-Mandeb strait for eastern China’s Zhoushan port, the fourth Chinese supertanker to leave since the Houthis declared a naval blockade.
Associated Maritime Hong Kong, the manager for New Explorer and New Pearl, did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside office hours.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group struck sites belonging to Saudi state oil company Aramco in the cities of Jizan and Yanbu on Saturday.
Hormuz Traffic Remains Muted
Fewer than 10 commodity vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz daily over the weekend even though the U.S. and Iran have paused strikes in the Middle East, shipping data from Kpler showed.
Seven vessels transited on Sunday including three Iranian-linked oil products tankers that exited the Strait, the data showed.
On Saturday, there were only three vessels that passed through with their transponders switched off. These include a VLCC heading to Qatar to load oil, a liquefied petroleum gas tanker going to the Ruwais port in the United Arab Emirates to load a cargo and a tanker carrying Qatari naphtha that was heading to Japan, the data showed.
On Friday, seven vessels passed, mostly exiting the Gulf, including two VLCCs carrying crude from Iraq and the UAE and a tanker carrying fuel oil.
(With inputs from Reuters)
