Saudi Arabia Forced Back to Perilous Hormuz

Saudi Arabia's detours around the Strait of Hormuz aren't quite working out. After months of pushing oil west via pipelines and the Red Sea, Riyadh is again sending millions of barrels a day through Hormuz in what the Wall Street Journal calls a "risky" move as Iran continues to attack ships in the narrow waterway. Iranian drone strikes knocked out the kingdom's East-West pipeline earlier this month, while Houthi attacks have made Saudi-linked shipping in the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb increasingly hazardous. The pipeline is again flowing, but at a low rate, per Reuters.

That's left state giant Saudi Aramco leaning on a precarious workaround: loading crude at Ras Tanura in the Persian Gulf, running tankers through Hormuz, then transferring oil to ships off Oman for customers in China, South Korea, and Japan. The scramble is pushing up tanker rates and insurance and helping keep Saudi output at multi-decade lows, per the Journal. Just on Monday, a tanker was struck by an unknown projectile in the strait, injuring two crew members, according to UK Maritime Trade Operations. Meanwhile, a senior Iranian official tells Reuters that Hormuz attacks could cease within a week if the US lifts its naval blockade.