The threat to oil tankers in the Middle East has reached its worst level since the Iran war began, ship-tracking analysts say, after a fresh spate of attacks on tankers using the Red Sea as an alternative route. Traffic through both the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea has fallen sharply, and Brent crude dropped after Donald Trump said he would cancel planned strikes on Iran.
The threat to ships carrying oil in the Middle East is at its worst since the Iran war started, analysts have said, after a fresh spate of attacks on vessels using the Red Sea. The warning follows a number of attacks on ships in that waterway, an alternative route some tankers had used for oil shipments since Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz.
Strait of Hormuz traffic collapses
Only eight ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday and 11 on Saturday, compared with more than 100 a day before the war began, according to Kpler. Before the conflict, about 20% of the world's oil and gas passed through the strait. A temporary peace deal struck with the US in early June had lifted traffic again, but renewed strikes roughly a month later cut it back sharply, and many ships have switched off their transponders while crossing to avoid detection.
Houthi attacks squeeze the Red Sea alternative
For much of the war, some ships carrying oil from Saudi Arabia had instead used an alternative route through the Red Sea. But a recent spate of attacks by Yemen's Houthi fighters on Saudi tankers using that waterway has added to the risk. The Houthi militia announced a blockade of Saudi Arabia's Red Sea ports on 20 July, and the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency has reported several attacks on ships in the past week.
Kpler analyst Matthew Wright said the Red Sea route had been helping to balance the market before also coming under threat: "It's a problem stacked on top of a problem."
Oil prices fall as Trump signals restraint
Despite talks with Oman, Iran's foreign ministry has said any agreement would not lift current restrictions while what it calls US aggression continues. Wright said a deal would need US involvement, and that talks could still prove a false start without concessions from at least one side.
Oil prices fell sharply after Trump said he would cancel planned strikes on Iran based on the potential for upcoming talks. Brent crude was trading 4.4% lower at $84.05 a barrel, after falling as much as 7.3% to $81.55 a barrel earlier in the day.
Twenty-eight commodity vessels passed through the Bab el-Mandeb strait on Saturday, and six had their transponders switched off, Kpler data show. Total traffic sits at about 50% of pre-attack levels, since the Houthi threat targets Saudi shipping only, but the number of ships loading crude oil for export to Asia has dropped to about four a day, Kpler added, the lowest point since the war began.
A Hapag-Lloyd spokesperson said some of the shipping giant's vessels are still using the Red Sea, but that restoring normal cargo flows would most likely take three to four months even if the strait reopened quickly, since services have been suspended and ships redeployed elsewhere.
Source: BBC News
Trading involves risk.
Risk Disclaimer
