Saudi port data shows how Houthi attacks thwarted Red Sea oil re-routing

CEIC’s high-frequency datasets on tanker departures provide near-real-time insights into how oil export routes are being reshaped.

This month’s twist was a successful attack by Yemen’s Houthi militia on #Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline – the lynchpin of the kingdom’s contingency plan for disruptions to the Strait of Hormuz.

Al Jubail and Ras Tanura, both Gulf-facing ports, saw traffic drop sharply after the US-Iran war began as tankers avoided transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Yanbu and Jeddah, on the Red Sea coast, picked up some of the slack as oil was re-routed. (The East-West pipeline terminates in Yanbu.) This trend held through the initial phase of the conflict.

Once Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping intensified, oil tanker departures from Yanbu and Jeddah collapsed as well. With both the Gulf and Red Sea routes nearly choked off, Saudi Arabia has lost its two main options for getting #oil to its important Asian customers.

The knock-on effects range from soaring shipping costs globally to another source of stress in the diesel market.