Few tankers diverted away from Red Sea route – Vortexa

Only a fraction of oil tankers passing through Bab al-Mandeb Strait have been rerouted to avoid attacks in the area, Vortexa’s crude market analyst Armen Azizian has told ENGINE.

PHOTO: Tanker passing through the Suez Canal. Getty Images

Yemen's Houthi rebel group has been attacking commercial ships in the southern Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait between Yemen and East Africa since last November. There have been attacks on container ships owned by A.P. Moller-Maersk, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and CMA CGM, which have avoided the Red Sea in fear of new attacks.

Several other major firms have joined them in diverting their container ships away from the Red Sea. This has meant that they cannot sail the shorter route between Asia and Europe through the Suez Canal, and instead have to resort to the longer Cape of Good Hope route.

While container ships have been shying away from the Red Sea, data from vessel cargo tracker Vortexa shows that the same cannot be said for oil tankers.

Around 26 tankers/day transited through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in the second half of December, and 31 tankers/day in the first half, Vortexa’s Azizian said. Vortexa’s data includes both ballast and laden tankers over 10,000 dwt.

Meanwhile, only 27 tankers were diverted away from the Bab al-Mandeb Strait between 19 December and 4 January. That averages out to only 1.6 tankers/day for that period.

Compared to the average daily tanker traffic on these routes, the rerouting remains relatively low, Azizian notes. But we could see more tanker reroutings "if tensions persist and more attacks occur," he says.

By Konica Bhatt

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