SAUDI Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, is continuing to send tanker loads of crude and fuels through the southern Red Sea, where Houthi militants have for months been menacing merchant ships in response to Israel’s war in Gaza.
“We’re moving in the Red Sea with our oil and products cargoes,” Mohammed Al Qahtani, who heads Aramco’s refining and oil trading and marketing businesses, said at the company’s headquarters in Dhahran. The associated risks are “manageable”, he said.
The decision contrasts with swaths of other tanker owners who abandoned Red Sea trips after the United States and United Kingdom bombed parts of Yemen in an effort to quell the Houthi attacks. The militants responded by saying both nations’ shipping would be targeted, alongside that of Israel prompting naval warnings for merchant vessels to stay away.
Even before the US and UK attacks, which have been ongoing since Jan 12, hundreds of container ships and many other merchant vessels had already veered away from the area – an unavoidable route for any carrier wanting to use the Suez Canal to cut between Asia and Europe.
That’s lengthened voyages and delayed cargoes of everything from fuels to car parts as many of the ships go the longer way around Africa. It is also fanning concerns about a return of inflation.
The Saudis have called for restraint in the US and UK strikes against the Houthis, trying to keep its own peace talks alive with the militants. The kingdom is seeking to end its military involvement in Yemen’s civil war, a conflict that has seen the rebels attack Saudi oil installations in the past.
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