Oil flows through Strait of Hormuz rise on Saudi pivot as Red Sea traffic plunges

Oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz surged to a monthly high in September as Saudi Arabia redirected shipments from the Red Sea route due to Houthi attacks. Saudi crude volume through Hormuz jumped to 2.58 million barrels per day, accounting for 43 percent of the strait's oil traffic, according to preliminary Kpler data. However, flows through Bab Al Mandeb fell to 2.56 million bpd, a 50 percent decrease from August.

Saudi Arabia relied heavily on its East-West pipeline to move oil to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, where tankers carried the crude to Asian markets. Nevertheless, overall regional oil traffic through Hormuz, Bab Al Mandeb, and the Suez Canal declined by 61 percent to 9.99 million bpd in September. The September total was 3.7 million bpd, with Saudi Arabia contributing about 3.7 million bpd.

The decline was more pronounced for other Gulf exporters, with Kuwait's shipments halving, the UAE's down 43 percent, and Iraq's falling 23 percent. Iran shipped only 100,000 bpd, compared to 2.5 million bpd in February under the US naval blockade. Diplomatic efforts to reopen the strait have so far failed, with Iran rejecting US President Donald Trump's offer to lift sanctions if the strait was reopened. As of September, Hormuz's flows were less than a third of February's levels.