SINGAPORE: Two Chinese very large crude carriers carrying a combined 4 million barrels of Saudi Arabian oil are heading toward the Bab El-Mandeb strait to exit the Red Sea on Thursday, shipping data showed, even as a Saudi vessel came under attack in the region.
The ships’ attempt to transit the strait will clearly test how tightly the Houthis will impose the naval blockade on Saudi Arabia they announced on Monday. The group said they attacked two Saudi tankers with drones and missiles earlier on Thursday.
The Red Sea blockade by the Iran-aligned Houthis threatens to further disrupt global energy supplies at the same time the key Strait of Hormuz has practically shut amid the resumption of fighting between the US and Iran.
The Singaporean-flagged VLCC Xin Long Yang, which made a U-turn and took a pause in the middle of the Red Sea on Tuesday, resumed its journey southward late on Wednesday, LSEG shipping data showed.
The vessel was sailing past the Yemeni coast and heading to the port of Qinzhou in southern China, the shipping data showed. The Chinese-flagged VLCC Cosnew Lake was following and it was signaling it would discharge its cargo at the port of Huizhou in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, the data showed.
