More than half a dozen empty supertankers are currently en route to Egypt’s Sidi Kerir port to pick up Saudi crude as the world’s top crude oil exporter is re-routing – again – its export tactics to avoid the new threat for the Middle East’s chokepoints, the Bab el-Mandeb in the Red Sea.
Since the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen announced last week a blockade on Saudi shipments in the southern Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Saudi Arabia has been shuttling more crude from Yanbu to the Egyptian port of Ain Sukhna on the Red Sea, and then on the SUMED onshore pipeline to Egypt’s Sidi Kerir port.
The Houthi threat, which resulted in attacks on Saudi tankers in the Red Sea last week, has prompted Saudi and Western operators to divert tankers to the Suez Canal in Egypt to bypass the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Currently, at least eight very large crude carriers (VLCCs) are signaling the port of Sidi Kerir as their destination, with all expected to arrive in the coming two to three weeks, according to vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.
No observable tankers were at the Saudi port of Yanbu on the Red Sea as of early Tuesday, but this is likely due to the fact that tankers have started to switch off transponders en masse to avoid becoming targets of the Houthis.
The Houthi threats to shipping in the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb have already forced at least one oil tanker carrying Saudi crude to Asia to choose the much longer route through the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean, and around Africa.
Now empty supertankers are ready to make the long voyage to Egypt and then potentially to the Cape of Good Hope in Africa en route to Asia if the situation at the two chokepoints in the Middle East doesn’t improve.
Currently, the U.S.-Iran de-escalation hasn’t abated operators’ fears of running tankers at either chokepoint. Tanker traffic through Bab el-Mandeb slumped to a multi-month low on Sunday while traffic at the Strait of Hormuz remains subdued at a two-month low.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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