Saudi Arabia has resumed tanker loadings at the Yanbu terminal on the Red Sea following an attack on the east – west pipeline which stalled exports earlier in September.
The East – West pipeline was struck on 11 September in an attack blamed on Iraqi militants and resumed operations last week. Shipping tracking companies are now reporting loadings at Yanbu on the Red Sea identified through satellite imagery.
TankerTrackers.com said in a post on X: “ESA satellite imagery captured over the Red Sea on 2026-09-27 shows Saudi Arabia loading nearly 10 million barrels of crude oil at Yanbu and Al Muajjiz. We also observed refined-product loadings. In total, we visually identified 40 tankers, regardless of their activity or proximity to these terminals.
The resumption of loadings will be good news for tanker owners and does not appear to have immediately impacted record high large tanker rates which has crossed the million dollars per level for transits of the Strait of Hormuz.
The 2026-built DHT Holdings VLCC DHT Gazelle was reported fixed to SK Energy for a Red Sea via Suez Canal voyage to South Korea at a rate of $55 million for 270,000 tonnes of crude according to Tankers International. The fixture equates to $634,000 per day.
Due to the Houthi threat to tankers calling Saudi ports VLCCs are avoiding the southern Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb resulting in much longer transits and increased tonne miles via the Suez Canal, including partial unloading and reloading at the Sumed pipeline and then transiting to Asia via the Cape of Good Hope.The longer voyages act to further reduce capacity in the already tight VLCC market where around 15% is estimated to be Gulf of Oman waiting to ship-to-ship transfers from shuttles from the Arabian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz