Houthi Threats Send Saudi Red Sea Crude Exports 'Dark'

Saudi Arabia's Red Sea crude exports have been severely impacted by the Houthi threat, leading to a significant increase in 'dark' voyages. According to Vortexa, all recent Yanbu loadings were conducted without AIS signals as tankers avoid tracking to evade attacks.

The Houthis declared a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia on July 20, and since then, they have claimed attacks on Saudi-linked tankers, Yanbu oil facilities, and the Jazan refinery. This has led to more vessels operating without publicly visible tracking data.

Ship-tracking firms have produced widely differing export estimates due to the lack of visibility into Saudi oil exports. For example, in the week beginning August 3, Vortexa estimated Yanbu loadings fell to 2.38 million barrels per day from 2.71 million the previous week, while Kpler estimated a sharper drop to 1.78 million bpd from 4.04 million.

Saudi Aramco did not respond to a request for comment. Analysts monitoring shipments rely on vessels re-appearing on tracking systems once they leave the high-risk area and using satellite data to cross-check movements and fill in gaps.