Saudi Arabia backs away from using Red and Mediterranean Sea ports for oil exports amid a tightening Yemeni blockade

Saudi Arabia backed away on Thursday from using ports on the Red and Mediterranean Seas for oil exports, as the Yemeni blockade on it intensifies.

Exclusive – Al-Khabar Al-Yemeni:

European satellites showed Saudi Arabia’s return to exporting oil from its ports on the Gulf. Images from the European Union’s “Sentinel-1 and 2” satellites showed Saudi Arabia exporting about 7 million barrels in recent hours from various ports in Ras Tanura.

They also detected the presence of 4 oil transport ships, a rate larger than any seen in weeks.

This is the first time Saudi Arabia has acknowledged using Gulf ports since they were targeted during the war on Iran.

The return to those ports came after Saudi Arabia had transferred oil export operations to Yanbu port on the Red Sea and up to the Egyptian port of Sidi Kerir on the Mediterranean Sea.

The timing of the return decision indicates the scale of Saudi panic over the use of the Red Sea, especially in light of the recent Yemeni operation targeting the ship “Amzan,” one of the largest Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, as the ninth Saudi oil ship, and the resulting increase in insurance premiums for ships in the Red Sea.