Houthis advance on Bab el-Mandeb as Saudi pipeline shutdown raises oil risks

Filed 57m ago · Via NV · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Dance of the Tuba Plum Fairy

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Rijksmuseum · CC0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Saudi Arabia suspended operations on its East-West pipeline on September 11 after a drone attack, days after Iran-backed Houthi forces seized a strategic island and port near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, one of the world's busiest oil and shipping corridors. Analysts quoted by the report call it the largest Houthi territorial gain in years, opening what one analyst called a new front tied to the broader U.S.-Iran standoff. About 5% of global crude volumes and up to 15% of seaborne trade have historically passed through the strait, and analysts warn a simultaneous closure with the Strait of Hormuz could threaten a quarter of global oil and gas supplies.

Amid rising petroleum prices tied largely to the regional conflict, President Trump instead told reporters Ukraine should stop striking Russian energy facilities, arguing the strikes were driving a global diesel shortage. The pipeline shutdown and strait seizure, both far more directly implicated in oil-market jitters, went unmentioned in that framing.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

When the barn's on fire two counties over and a fella points at the neighbor's woodstove three counties past that, you have to wonder what he's trying not to look at. The Houthis just took ground near one of the busiest oil doorways on the planet, and the response from Washington was to redirect the blame toward Kyiv. That's not leadership, that's just picking the easiest target in the room.

Source: Read the original at NV → Scored: Dance of the Tuba Plum Fairy · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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