The Red Sea Reopens as a Second Front While Saudi Crude Routes Around the Blockade
At a Glance Operational Overview The Red Sea has reopened as a second active front. The Houthis resumed attacks on July 22 following a September 2025 ceasefire, hit a Saudi Aramco refinery at Jizan on July 25, and launched missiles intercepted before reaching Yanbu. Four vessels have been hit or affected across the reporting period….
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Selective Enforcement: Saudi Crude Keeps Moving Under the Houthi Blockade
A Blockade, Declared and Partly Kinetic On July 20, Houthi-aligned forces announced a full naval blockade of Saudi Arabia, framed as retaliation for Saudi strikes on Sanaa airport. The declaration named Saudi, Israeli, and U.S.-linked tonnage as targets. Within days, Houthi channels claimed strikes on two Saudi tankers. One is corroborated: UKMTO logged a projectile…
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Two Days After the Houthi Blockade Announcement, the Red Sea Split in Two
The Houthis declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia on July 20, escalating threats across the Red Sea corridor while Iranian forces struck three tankers in the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours. That ambiguity is doing real work. Within a day, Windward tracked the market splitting into two opposite flows: commercial tonnage pulling back…
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Russia Is the Leading Flag for Shadow Fleet Tankers
WHAT: Russia is now the leading flag for the shadow fleet after shifting some 69 sanctioned ships to its registry since November 2025 in response to the interdiction of stateless tankers by U.S. and European militaries. More than one in five of the 1,000-plus tankers sanctioned by Western regulators now flies the Russian flag, Windward…
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