Industry News

Middle Eastern shipping patterns face another violent reshuffle after fresh vessel attacks around Hormuz, the shutdown of Saudi Arabia’s critical East-West oil pipeline and the Houthis’ advance into the heart of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Two more commercial vessels were attacked on Sunday. The Panama-flagged 47,999 dwt product tanker El Gaia was struck off Oman, leaving one Indian seafarer missing. India said 13 other Indian crewmembers had been rescued. The 2005-built tanker had recently sailed from Sohar and is managed by UAE-based Elsey Ship Management.

Separately, an unnamed Iranian containership was hit by a projectile near Qeshm and Hengam islands. Iranian authorities reported one fatality and several injuries. Tehran blamed a “terrorist enemy”, while there was no immediate confirmation of responsibility from Washington.

Compounding the disruption, Saudi Arabia shut its 1,200 km East-West pipeline on Friday after a drone attack damaged a pumping station. The route has become Riyadh’s essential escape valve during the six-month Hormuz crisis, moving around 4m barrels per day across the kingdom to Yanbu on the Red Sea — roughly 4% of global oil supply.

Industry sources estimate Yanbu has enough crude stocks to maintain exports for only another five to seven days. Repair estimates range from considerably sooner to as long as five or six weeks.

TankerTrackers.com noted on Sunday that satellite imagery already showed a new bypass pipeline being assembled south of the damaged pumping station, suggesting Saudi authorities are racing to restore flows.

That urgency is magnified by events at the other end of the Red Sea.

After seizing Mokha last week, Houthi forces advanced into Perim, also known as Mayun, the island sitting inside the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, while also taking Dhubab on the adjacent Yemeni mainland. The gains put the Iran-aligned group in a position to exert substantially greater control over the southern entrance to the Red Sea. The Houthis continue to insist international shipping can pass safely, with their existing ban applying only to Saudi vessels.

Analysts at Sea-Intelligence warned that the Houthi position leaves a “Sword of Damocles” hanging over carriers contemplating a Red Sea return, because conditions could change from one day to the next.

Finally, in today’s roundup of key news from the Middle East, the planned Monday meeting in Oman between Gulf states and Iran to discuss a possible Strait of Hormuz agreement has been postponed. 

Source: https://splash247.com/middle-east-shipping-squeezed-as-hormuz-and-bab-el-mandeb-risks-converge/