How Red Sea Route Via Bab el-Mandeb Is Emerging As Hormuz Alternative For Secure Oil Supplies?

South Korea and Taiwan are moving to reroute crude shipments through Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu port on the Red Sea as disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz continue amid the Iran conflict, according to AFP.

South Korea is weighing deploying five Korean-flagged vessels to Yanbu to secure alternative oil supply routes, a ruling party lawmaker said Monday.

“Korean-flagged vessels need to be dispatched to alternative routes,” lawmaker Ahn Do-geol said after a meeting with government agencies, including the energy ministry, AFP reported.

He said Seoul is pushing to send five vessels to Yanbu, without specifying the route they would take.

Separately, Taiwan said it is redirecting oil shipments through Red Sea routes to avoid Hormuz disruptions, AFP reported.

“We have worked to adjust shipping routes so that shipments leave via the Red Sea, or we use spot purchases to make up the difference,” Tsou Yu-hsin, a senior official in Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, said.

Taiwan said about 46 percent of adjusted supplies are being rerouted through the Red Sea, with the rest met through spot purchases.

Both economies rely heavily on West Asian crude, with imports disrupted after Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz in response to US-Israeli strikes.

According to Chosunilbo, Saudi Arabia has been transporting crude from eastern oil fields to the Red Sea via a roughly 1,200-kilometre pipeline, exporting it through Yanbu.

The report said Yanbu’s daily loading capacity has increased to about 4.4 million barrels, up from around 2 million barrels before the war, as exports shift away from Hormuz.

Bloomberg and other foreign media, cited by Chosunilbo, reported that the Bab el-Mandeb Strait handles around 9 million barrels of crude per day, with volumes rising after the conflict began.

The route through Yanbu is also fraught with dangers.

According to Nikkei Asia, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, has emerged as another potential chokepoint for energy shipments after Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group threatened to target shipping.

Nikkei Asia reported that crude flows through the strait have increased since the Hormuz disruption, with most shipments headed to Asian markets.

The report added that the Houthis have previously targeted Red Sea shipping and could attempt to restrict movement through the waterway again.