Virtually all tanker ships loading oil at the main Saudi oil-loading port of Yanbu not only now have their transponders off to hide themselves, but are also concealing the amount of their cargo, by not showing their Automatic Identification System codes when “lifting” the crude at Yanbu docks, according to The Cradle on Aug. 13. The analysis estimates that about 30 vessels a day are passing through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait out of the Red Sea, compared to 50 per day before the Houthis blockaded it against Saudi, U.S., and Israeli shipping in particular. Saudi Arabia is sending its oil north and west instead, either through the Suez Canal, or into an Egyptian pipeline for loading elsewhere.
Tracking firms are publishing wildly varying estimates for individual tanker ships and for the total amount of oil being loaded at Yanbu; as a result, market estimates of global oil prices are becoming somewhat random.
