Oil tanker 'armada' moves to Red Sea with closure of Strait of Hormuz

A massive flotilla of tankers is rushing to Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast to pick up crude oil that has been diverted as a result of Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Between 24 and 30 large crude carriers are en route to the Saudi Arabian port city of Yanbu, where the East-West pipeline terminates, according to ship tracking data reported by Bloomberg and The Financial Times on Thursday. 

With Iran having effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, the 1,200km East-West pipeline is now the juggernaut for Gulf oil exports. The pipeline runs from the Abqaiq oil field on the kingdom's eastern Gulf coast to the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea.

Read more: Oil tanker 'armada' moves to Red Sea with closure of Strait of Hormuz