Two tankers have headed back to the Red Sea after initially diverting away from the troubled region.
Ship-tracking data from LSEG and Kpler shows that the 113,100-dwt LR2 Free Spirit (built 2008), owned by the Moundreas family’s NGM Energy, and Pertamina International Shipping’s 105,600-dwt aframax Gamsunoro (built 2014) passed through the Bab el-Mandeb strait this week.
Both were heading northbound from Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates to ports in western Saudi Arabia. The Free Spirit is en route to Yanbu, while the aframax is heading to Jeddah.
Both vessels are carrying heavy fuels, data showed.
More tankers have started to avoid the region after the US and UK-led attacks against Houthi positions in Yemen to deter the rebel group’s drones and missiles.
Industry sources told Reuters that some ships willing to use the Red Sea might be able to profit from concerns among rivals.
“It could be the case that some tanker owners are willing to go through the Red Sea if the freight [cost] is right,” Alberto Ayuso Martin, head of research at Spain’s Medco Shipbrokers, told the news agency.
Consultancy Vortexa has calculated tanker traffic through the strait as being 58% lower than the 2023 average between 13 and 17 January. Clean tankers have been more severely affected.
Crude producer Saudi Aramco can bypass Bab al-Mandeb because of a pipeline connecting Saudi Arabia’s eastern oil facilities and its west coast, according to chief executive Amin Nasser.
Paused or diverted
He added that product exports could face diversions.
Reuters has tracked at least 22 other tankers diverting or halting Red Sea passages since the Western airstrikes.
A further seven remain in the Gulf of Aden or in the northern half of the Red Sea.
