Chinese Tankers Outmaneuver Houthi Blockade at Bab el-Mandeb

Two Chinese supertankers carrying a combined 4 million barrels of Saudi Arabian oil successfully transited the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on July 23, evading a blockade by Yemen's Houthi militias. The shipment highlights ongoing risks to global energy flows as tensions in the Middle East escalate.

The Red Sea blockade is worsening global energy supply disruption, coming at the same time the key Strait of Hormuz has practically shut due to renewed fighting between the US and Iran. At least two other VLCCs chartered by Unipec and scheduled to enter the Red Sea slowed their advance towards Bab el-Mandeb and were making small circles in the Gulf of Aden.

Two Chinese-flagged tankers, Xin Long Yang and Cosnew Lake, exited the Red Sea via the Bab el-Mandeb strait on July 23. The vessels indicated through their automatic identification system transmitters that there were Chinese crew onboard and they loaded crude at Saudi Arabia's port of Yanbu earlier this week.