This article is to serve as a contextual and situational awareness note. Further analysis, in this week’s letter ‘Gloves off’, publishing shortly.
Articles
This week’s ‘Gloves off’ from The Oil Report.
Hegseth ignored Centcom, cut program ahead of Iran school strike: Report
Closure of the Suez Canal (1967–1975)
Total MEG exports
The Middle East Gulf region ships its oil through three channels only: The Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea route via Yanbu/the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and the Suez Canal/SUMED pipeline further north.
All three are constrained at once right now. Gulf total oil exports stood at 13.0 mbd in August (IEA), nearly half of normal. The Red Sea route is capped by both a jammed Yanbu port and this current active Houthi campaign, and Suez only absorbs the overflow at more than double the sailing time-more below. Effectively, Suez is ‘downstream’ of the ‘hot war’, yet remaining critical from a transportation perspective. What follows walks each route in turn.