Up to 25 oil tankers sailing to Saudi port of Yanbu as number of ships in the region struck increases

RIYADH: A convoy of at least 25 supertankers is heading to the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea, as Saudi Arabia races to get its oil to market after the US-Israel war with Iran halted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

This fleet will provide the capacity to ship approximately 50 million barrels of oil from the port, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

If these tankers successfully load their cargoes, it will be a significant step toward easing the unprecedented disruption to energy supplies from the Arabian Gulf, Asharq Bloomberg reported.

This comes as the widening war in Iran has effectively halted tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, sending oil prices into sharp swings and highlighting the strategic importance of the narrow waterway to global energy supplies.

The Strait of Hormuz is the narrow mouth of the Arabian Gulf through which about a fifth of the world’s oil passes. Any disruption to traffic through the passage is highly disruptive to the oil trade.