Six Saudi-flagged supertankers have changed course in the Gulf of Aden in recent days and are heading to southern Africa following threats by the Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen to target Saudi shipping, tracking data showed on Monday.
Over the weekend, however, two tankers laden with Saudi oil crossed the Bab el-Mandeb Strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, while traffic in the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman slowed following reports of vessel attacks, shipping data showed on Monday.
About a fifth of the world's oil passed through the Strait of Hormuz before the U.S. and Israel started bombing Iran on February 28.
A Panama-flagged tanker carrying Russian naphtha attempted to pass through the Bab-el-Mandeb in the last week of July before changing course to sail around Africa instead, trade sources said and shipping data from LSEG showed.
Russia said on Monday it was stepping up protection of ships in the Azov-Black Sea basin while also developing alternative cargo routes, in a move that follows a sharp escalation of attacks at sea by both sides in the war in Ukraine.
Russia was the world's third-biggest crude oil producer behind the U.S. and Saudi Arabia in 2025, according to U.S. energy data, and is a member of the OPEC+ group of countries, which includes the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies.
Export disruptions from the Gulf, Russia and Kazakhstan, caused by the Iran and Ukraine wars, have meant successive monthly OPEC+ hikes over most of this year have not translated into extra oil on the market.
On Sunday, OPEC+ approved an oil production quota increase of around 188,000 barrels per day from September.
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