Houthi attack cuts Red Sea traffic to lowest in months
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- Houthis claimed responsibility for Saturday strikes on Saudi state oil company Aramco sites in Jizan and Yanbu, with military spokesperson Yahya Saree saying the group targeted Saudi oil installations along the Red Sea coast.
- Bab el-Mandeb saw only 11 commodity vessels transit on Sunday — the lowest level in months — of which seven were oil tankers, including two VLCCs heading to the Saudi port of Yanbu to load crude, Kpler data showed.
- The Hong Kong-flagged VLCC New Explorer exited the Red Sea carrying 2 million barrels of Saudi and Emirati crude bound for Ningbo, China, becoming the third Chinese VLCC to transit the strait, according to Associated Maritime Hong Kong records.
- Strait of Hormuz traffic stayed below 10 commodity vessels daily over the weekend, with just three ships passing on Saturday — a VLCC heading to Qatar, an LPG tanker to UAE's Ruwais, and a tanker carrying Qatari naphtha to Japan — all with transponders switched off.
- The Tehran-aligned Houthis stated aim is to blockade Saudi exports, a move the source links to the broader US-Iran conflict that has already throttled oil supply through the Strait of Hormuz.
Why it matters: Saudi crude exports now face a fresh blockade threat on the Red Sea at the exact moment Hormuz transit remains throttled by the US-Iran standoff — seven of Sunday's eleven Bab el-Mandeb transits were oil tankers, meaning the two Gulf chokepoints are simultaneously squeezing crude flows even though strikes have paused.
