Brent rises above $108 as Saudi pipeline stays shut and Houthis hold Bab al-Mandeb
Yemen Herald News 
LONDON, United Kingdom — Brent crude rose above $108 a barrel on Monday after Saudi Arabia shut its main export pipeline and Houthi forces tightened their hold on Bab al-Mandeb.
The international benchmark traded at $108.34 a barrel, a gain of about 3.5 percent on the day, according to market data compiled by Trading Economics. Brent has risen roughly 19 percent over the past month.
Both of the routes Saudi Arabia uses to move crude to market came under pressure in the same week.
Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry said on Friday it had shut the East-West Crude Oil Pipeline after a series of drone strikes. The attacks took place on Sept. 10 and 11 and hit sections of the line in the Riyadh and Madinah regions, CNBC and Al Jazeera reported. Both said the drones were launched from Iraqi territory.
The pipeline runs 1,201 kilometres from the Abqaiq processing complex in the east to the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea. Its capacity is about seven million barrels a day.
Its importance grew after the Strait of Hormuz was effectively closed at the end of February, at the start of the war between Iran and the United States and Israel. Riyadh had been rerouting about five million barrels a day through the line to avoid the Gulf.
With the pipeline down, that workaround is unavailable.
The second pressure point sits at the other end of the Red Sea.
Houthi fighters took the port city of Mocha on Sept. 10 as government forces withdrew, and landed on Mayyun Island, also known as Perim, the following day, according to Al Jazeera and NBC News. The island sits in the middle of Bab al-Mandeb and splits it into two shipping lanes.
The advance gave the group the eastern side of the strait and Yemen’s Red Sea coastline.
Yahya Saree, the Houthi military spokesman, said on Friday that navigation was safe for all companies except Saudi ships, which he said were already barred. The group declared a blockade of Saudi-flagged vessels in July.
Yemen’s internationally recognised government rejects the movement’s authority over the waterway and has said it intends to retake the coast. The Houthis dispute that account.
Oil flows through Bab al-Mandeb averaged 5.6 million barrels a day in the first quarter of this year and 8.1 million barrels a day in the second, about 8 percent of global supply.
Al Jazeera reported that closing the strait while Hormuz remains shut would place roughly a quarter of the world’s oil and gas supply out of reach.
Iraq has opened an investigation into the launches, Middle East Eye reported. The Iraqi government has not said who it holds responsible.
Bab al-Mandeb is the southern entrance to the Red Sea and the approach to the Suez Canal. It narrows to about 30 kilometres at its tightest point.
Talks between Iran and Gulf Arab states on opening a temporary shipping lane through Hormuz were postponed on Monday. The meeting had been due to take place in Oman.
The Houthis announced a naval blockade of Saudi shipping in the Red Sea in July, saying it applied to vessels flying the Saudi flag and to ships calling at Saudi ports.
The group had earlier attacked commercial vessels it linked to Israel and its allies, prompting warships from several navies to deploy to the area.
Iran’s foreign ministry said Saudi Arabia had asked for the delay. An Omani official told CNN the talks had been put off for now. The United States was not due to take part.
Gas markets moved as well. UK wholesale gas reached about 200 pence a therm last week, its highest level since the end of 2022, according to Trading Economics. Contracts for winter delivery traded near 206 pence.
Traders have warned that Saudi Arabia will exhaust the stocks it holds for export if the pipeline stays closed for an extended period. The kingdom has not published a timetable for reopening it.
Saudi Arabia last suspended oil shipments through Bab al-Mandeb in July 2018, after an attack on two tankers, and resumed them weeks later.
Saudi Arabia has come under repeated attack from Yemen in recent weeks. The Saudi-led coalition said Houthi missile and drone strikes wounded 73 people in the kingdom earlier this month.
Saudi authorities said a Houthi projectile landed in al-Tuwal in the Jazan region on Saturday night, injuring two people and damaging a mosque and several buildings. The Houthis have not commented on that incident.
The Security Council held an emergency session on the escalation last week.
The wider fighting in Yemen has intensified since the Houthis began an offensive on Sept. 3. The International Organization for Migration said at least 76,000 people have fled the fighting since July.
Yemen’s civil aviation authority denied reports last week that airports in government-held areas had closed.
The United Nations humanitarian plan for Yemen published in March said more than 22 million people need aid and 18.3 million are acutely food insecure. It sought $2.16 billion to reach 12 million of them.
Hans Grundberg, the UN special envoy for Yemen, told the Security Council last week that the escalation risked widening the war.
Brent settled below $70 a barrel a year ago.
Saree did not say how long the restriction on Saudi shipping would remain in place.
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