A critical post-Hormuz reroute for Saudi crude and products exports could now be choked off, leaving the northern route as the kingdom's only real option.

Saudi Arabia is rerouting crude through Egypt's Sidi Kerir port as a Houthi blockade threat keeps tankers away from the Red Sea's Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Saudi Arabia had found a workaround for the Strait of Hormuz. Then the Houthis showed up.