Open-source satellite imagery and fire-detection data circulating Friday morning have raised the possibility that Yemen’s Houthis struck a pumping station on Saudi Arabia’s East-West crude pipeline, the kingdom’s main overland route around the Strait of Hormuz. The claim is serious. It is also, as of this writing, unconfirmed by Saudi Aramco and the Saudi government. […]
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In Jurassic Park, Dr. Ian Malcolm delivers one of cinema’s most memorable lines: “Life finds a way.” Nature adapts, persists, and routes around obstacles no matter how carefully the fences are built. In the summer of 2026, crude oil is doing the same thing. Blockades and attacks have choked the Strait of Hormuz and the […]
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Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement claimed on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, that its forces targeted Saudi Aramco’s Jazan (also spelled Jizan) oil refinery on the Red Sea coast in southwest Saudi Arabia with “a number of drones.” A Houthi military source told the group’s Saba news agency the strike was “precise” and conducted in response to […]
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Saudi Arabia is offering to sell crude oil cargoes on a ship-to-ship basis from locations off the coast of Oman, including near Sohar in the Gulf of Oman. This move signals that the kingdom may be ramping up the practice of shuttling barrels through the Strait of Hormuz—often with transponders switched off—mirroring tactics already used […]
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Saudi Aramco has put a stark number on the energy fallout from the ongoing US-Iran conflict: more than 2.6 billion barrels of oil supply lost since fighting erupted in February 2026. That figure, first highlighted by Aramco CEO Amin Nasser in early August and amplified in a recent Reuters report widely shared on X by […]
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The Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed on or around August 4-5, 2026, that they successfully targeted a Saudi-controlled medium-range (MR) product tanker in the northern Red Sea with ballistic missiles. The vessel, identified as the Bahri-controlled NCC Wafa (also referred to as Wafaa or NCC WAFA; IMO 9688348, approximately 49,990 DWT, built 2014, Saudi-flagged), […]
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Global oil refineries outside active conflict zones are operating near or at maximum capacity, with almost no remaining buffers to absorb further shocks. Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser made the point clearly this week: the system is stretched thin, leaving “little shock absorbers or buffers” against higher fuel prices. A combination of the ongoing war […]
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The conflict centered on Iran has expanded into the Red Sea, turning one of the world’s most critical energy corridors into a flashpoint with cascading effects on oil logistics, costs, and market dynamics. Energy analyst Anas Alhajji (@anasalhajji) captured the strategic stakes in a detailed August 3, 2026, post analyzing the Red Sea’s elevated importance. […]
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Saudi Arabia is exporting and producing less oil amid ongoing regional conflicts and shipping disruptions, yet its oil revenues have risen sharply thanks to elevated crude prices. This paradox highlights the resilience of the Kingdom’s energy sector even as capacity constraints, security threats, and infrastructure damage create significant hurdles. In the second quarter of 2026, […]
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Tanker traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern entrance to the Red Sea has slumped to a multi-month low, underscoring how Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi threats and recent attacks continue to disrupt one of the world’s most critical oil shipping lanes. According to vessel-tracking data, only 11 commodity-carrying vessels—including just seven oil tankers (four […]
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