The latest news on Thursday evening Beijing time shows that Saudi National Shipping Company Bahri is rushing to book very large crude carriers at exorbitant prices to head to the Red Sea to load crude oil from the oil kingdom, in order to bypass the suspension of operations in the Strait of Hormuz.

According to ship charter transaction information, Bahri has recently chartered at least 6 very large crude carriers (VLCCs) to transport crude oil to Yanbu, a port in the western part of the country. A number of shipowners and ship brokers believe that the actual scale of bookings by the company may be larger, and more transactions are likely to emerge in the next few days.

Many of the tankers booked by Bahri have achieved a freight rate of 450 WS (Worldscale) points, which is equivalent to a daily rental exceeding 450,000 US dollars. Before the outbreak of the war, the industry benchmark freight rate never exceeded 300,000 US dollars per day.

Regarding the latest news, Bahri responded to the media by stating that the company is continuing its operations in accordance with established safety and operational norms, while closely monitoring the development of the regional situation, and added that it cannot comment on business-related matters.

Furthermore, ship tracking data shows that a fleet of oil tankers stretching from Singapore to the Red Sea is sailing in an orderly manner to Yanbu to load crude oil. This fleet consists of at least 24 oil tankers, and the charterers of some of the vessels remain unclear.

Saudi Aramco stated this week that a 1,200-kilometer oil pipeline running across the country is expected to reach full capacity within a few days. This marks that the oil kingdom's alternative crude export channel to the Strait of Hormuz is entering a state of "full operation".

This pipeline has a daily processing capacity of approximately 7 million barrels, with about 2 million barrels to be supplied to domestic refineries in Saudi Arabia. Shipping analysis platform Vortexa estimates that the current issue lies in the loading capacity of Yanbu Port. Some previous calculations indicated that the port rarely loads more than 2.5 million barrels of crude oil per day, while its theoretical maximum export capacity is approximately 4 million barrels per day. Before the outbreak of the war, Saudi Aramco exported about 6 million barrels of oil per day through the Strait of Hormuz.

It is reported that Saudi oil giant Aramco has required Asian buyers to nominate shipping arrangements for both its main export ports in the Gulf region and alternative export ports in the Red Sea when submitting their monthly crude oil shipping plans.

Egypt also stated this week that it is ready to assist Saudi Arabia in transporting crude oil to the Mediterranean Sea via the SUMED (Suez-Mediterranean) pipeline. It is reported that the pipeline has a transportation capacity of 2.8 million barrels per day.

In addition to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates is also increasing crude oil exports through a pipeline from a major oil-producing area to the Port of Fujairah. Compiled data shows that exports from this terminal have surged to approximately 1.6 million barrels per day so far this month, significantly higher than the recent average of around 1.1 million barrels per day.

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