At least six further oil tankers have either diverted their course away from, or paused before entering the southern Red Sea since the weekend, ship tracking data from LSEG and Kpler show.
That takes the total number of shipping disruptions counted by Reuters to at least fifteen in total since the U.S.-led strikes on Houthi positions in Yemen last week.
Prior to the US and British strikes on Yemen, it had been mostly container ships which were avoiding the Red Sea, with oil tanker traffic largely unchanged in December.
But since the CMF’s warning, a growing number of oil tankers are avoiding the region, increasing the potential for disruptions to east-west oil supply via the Suez Canal.
Reuters counted six tankers to have altered their course since the strikes on Monday, making a total of at least fifteen vessels to do so since the start of the strikes, ship tracking data from LSEG and Kpler showed.
The tankers Torm Innovation, Proteus Harvonne and Alfios I appeared to have turned away from the Suez Canal in favour of the longer route around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope for voyages to Europe and the US.
The Pacific Julia and STI Topaz are also heading straight for the Cape route.
The Octa Lune performed a U-turn in the northern part of the Red Sea on 12 January and has returned to the Mediterranean with a Taiwan-bound cargo of naphtha.
Tankers tracked by Reuters on Friday that had diverted or paused have either taken the longer Cape route or paused in the Gulf of Aden or northern Red Sea.
Taking the longer route around the Cape can add up to three weeks’ sailing time.
The list of diversions could grow as ship owners exercise policies of navigating away from the Red Sea.
Tanker owners, including Torm, Hafnia and Stena Bulk said they would avoid Bab Al-Mandab from Friday, while Euronav reaffirmed its temporary suspension of transits through the Red Sea.
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