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← Latest editionHouthis Target Saudi Arabia’s Last Oil Route Around Iran War
A Houthi advance along Yemen’s Red Sea coast is putting Saudi Arabia’s main alternative oil-export route at risk, raising costs for buyers and pressure on Washington.
- The Houthis have seized Mokha and nearby Red Sea islands, extending their reach towards the Bab el-Mandeb, one of the world’s key shipping chokepoints.1
- Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline, which carries crude to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, has been shut after a drone attack and may operate only partially for three to five weeks.2
- Yanbu exports fell by about half in August as attacks pushed tankers towards longer, costlier routes through the Suez Canal.3
- A Houthi drone intercepted over Taif killed one person and injured two others, marking the first reported civilian death from the group’s renewed attacks inside Saudi Arabia.4
- The disruption is landing during the Iran war, when Saudi Arabia is already relying on routes that avoid the Strait of Hormuz.5
Saudi Arabia built the East-West pipeline as an insurance policy against trouble in the Gulf. The 1,200-kilometre system moves oil from eastern fields to Yanbu, allowing exports to bypass both Hormuz and, in normal conditions, the Bab el-Mandeb. Now the kingdom’s fallback route is exposed at both ends: the pipeline has been damaged, while Saudi-linked ships face attack in the Red Sea.
The Houthis have not taken control of the entire Red Sea, and shipping has not stopped. But the group’s advance has given Iran another pressure point over global energy markets without requiring Tehran to close a major strait itself. The immediate burden falls on Saudi Arabia, ship crews and oil buyers — with higher insurance, longer voyages and a greater risk that a local war will become a supply shock.
Footnotes
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Associated Press, “A week after Houthis seized a Red Sea city, the Iranian-backed rebels eye the oil-rich east”; UN daily press briefing, 11 September 2026 ↩
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Associated Press, “Saudi pipeline hit by drones will be out of service for weeks” ↩
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US Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook, 9 September 2026 ↩
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Associated Press, “Houthi drone debris kills 1, injures 2 in Saudi’s Taif province” ↩
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US Energy Information Administration, August 2026 Short-Term Energy Outlook; International Maritime Organization, “Stop attacking merchant ships and seafarers” ↩