Saudi Arabia’s observed crude exports fell to about 3m barrels per day in August, the lowest level in records stretching back to early 2017, as tanker attacks disrupted the kingdom’s main routes through the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea, according to a Bloomberg tanker-tracking estimate.
The preliminary figure could be revised as previously unidentified voyages and ship-to-ship transfers emerge.
Saudi Arabia had shifted large volumes west through its 1,200-km East-West Pipeline as Hormuz traffic contracted. Crude exports from Yanbu jumped from about 770,000 bpd in January to 4.3m bpd in June, before slipping to 3.7m bpd in July and roughly 2.25m bpd in August.
Persian Gulf exports, which recovered to around 800,000 bpd in July, also fell in August. Saudi crude movements through Bab el-Mandeb dropped from more than 3.5m bpd in early July to close to zero in August.
The squeeze intensified on 31 August when the Saudi-flagged VLCC Sidr, operated by Bahri, and Liberia-flagged Senegal Prosperity, associated with South Korean shipping company Sinokor Maritime, were struck by unidentified projectiles while transiting outbound through the Strait of Hormuz. Each tanker had loaded about 2m barrels of Saudi crude at Juaymah. Two Filipino seafarers aboard Sidr were killed. Saudi Arabia attributed the attack on Sidr to Iran.
The Joint Maritime Information Center has classified the threat level in Hormuz as severe, with commercial traffic still below its historical baseline and independent tracking showing single-digit vessel movements in both directions.
Pressure on the Red Sea route has also forced changes to Saudi crude flows. Deliveries to Egypt’s Ain Sukhna reached 1.32m bpd in July, while departures from Sidi Kerir on the Mediterranean reached 2.4m bpd in the first week of August. Some Asia-bound cargoes have been routed around the Cape of Good Hope, adding roughly 40 days to a round voyage.
Saudi crude inventories rose to about 75m barrels in early August from 61m in June as export options narrowed.