Houthi Strike on Saudi Supertanker off Yanbu Deepens Red Sea Oil Crisis

A Saudi-flagged supertanker has been struck off the kingdom's main Red Sea oil terminal, in an attack that extends the Houthi blockade to Saudi Arabia's last major export outlet and tightens the squeeze on crude flows to Europe and Asia already disrupted at both Gulf chokepoints.

The Bahri-owned VLCC Amzan, a 320,926-deadweight-tonne carrier built in 2014, reported a ballistic-missile strike on 24 August while about 63 nautical miles west of Yanbu, causing a fire on the main deck. State shipping operator Bahri confirmed the vessel had been involved in a maritime incident, said all crew were safe and reported no injuries, while Britain's UK Maritime Trade Operations agency logged the ship as hit by an unknown projectile. The Egyptian navy responded to the tanker's distress calls, according to security firm Ambrey. The Houthis claimed the attack as part of the naval blockade they declared on Saudi-linked shipping on 20 July, framing it as enforcement of a ban on Saudi maritime navigation.

The strategic significance lies in the location. Yanbu is Saudi Arabia's principal Red Sea oil port and had become the main outlet for the kingdom's crude after Iran's effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, loading up to four million barrels a day before the blockade began. Lloyd's List Intelligence estimates exports from the terminal have since fallen by at least a third as the Houthis extended their campaign into the northern Red Sea. Riyadh has resorted to a shuttle service moving crude to Egypt for onward pipeline transport to the Mediterranean, though at perhaps a million barrels a day, while other tankers head north toward the Suez Canal.

The attack forms part of a widening pattern that has left both of the region's chokepoints contested at once. The Houthis have in recent weeks killed seven people in a Yemeni port, struck a Saudi refinery, and killed at least six in a double-tap strike on a cargo vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, while US forces have separately disabled vessels in the Gulf of Oman accused of breaching Washington's blockade of Iranian ports. With the Iran conflict now in its sixth month, the assault on the Amzan underscores how the war continues to erode the security of the sea lanes that carry a substantial share of the crude and refined products feeding European refineries, keeping freight and insurance costs elevated as autumn contracting nears.