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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At a Glance Operational Overview Iran has formally closed the Strait of Hormuz. The IRGC declared the waterway closed until further notice following its strike on a Cyprus-flagged container ship for using what it described as an unauthorized route, marking the first formal closure declaration of the conflict. The U.S. responded with a third round…
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