Two tankers carrying Saudi crude to Asia turned back in the Bab al-Mandab Strait after the Houthis announced a blockade of Saudi ports. The ships had already headed north in the Red Sea before reversing course, a shift that puts the route used to move oil from Yanbu under immediate pressure.
The Rodos and Xin Long Yang were carrying a combined 2.8 million barrels from Saudi Arabia's western port of Yanbu when they turned around. Kpler said Yanbu had rerouted roughly 64 percent of the Saudi oil that would otherwise have left through the Strait of Hormuz, and Yanbu exported about 4.1 million barrels per day in June.
Yanbu route faces pressure
The reversal matters because Saudi Arabia had been using pipelines and Yanbu to reduce dependence on the Strait of Hormuz. That workaround now runs through a corridor that can be interrupted before cargoes leave the Red Sea, pushing Asian refiners to weigh a much longer route through the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean, Africa and the Cape of Good Hope.
That detour would add weeks to delivery times and substantially increase freight and fuel costs. For refiners buying Saudi crude, the practical issue is not just the sailing time but whether the added expense makes the alternate route usable at scale if Bab al-Mandab remains threatened.
Houthis and the Red Sea lane
On Monday, the Houthis announced a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia. On Tuesday, only three commodity vessels were recorded sailing through the Strait of Hormuz, and no very large crude carriers or liquefied natural gas tankers were sighted there. The tanker reversal in the Red Sea was the first visible sign that the Houthi threat is already affecting Saudi oil exports.
Experts say about 6 million barrels of crude per day that pass through the strait to Asia are now at risk. Before the war, about one-fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas supplies passed through the Strait of Hormuz, while Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain depended almost entirely on it for exports; Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also relied on it heavily but had pipelines linking production centers to alternative terminals.
Asia weighs longer shipments
Asian refiners now face a straightforward operational choice: accept a longer voyage from Yanbu or wait for cargoes to be rerouted again if the Red Sea threat eases. The first option keeps barrels moving, but at the cost of weeks in transit and higher shipping bills; the second depends on a route running through the Bab al-Mandab Strait that has already forced two tankers to reverse course.
How long Saudi Arabia can keep oil flowing through Yanbu if the Bab al-Mandab threat continues is the open question. For now, the market has one concrete signal to work with: two tankers, 2.8 million barrels, and a route that no longer looks routine.
