More tankers cross Bab el-Mandeb with transponders off as two Saudi crude carriers transit in dark mode

According to an OilPrice report on Monday, 3 August 2026 (12 Mordad 1405), citing vessel tracking data monitored by Bloomberg, the Houthi threat to shipments of Saudi crude oil from the Red Sea has not abated, and more tankers laden with Saudi oil have transited the Bab el-Mandeb chokepoint in dark mode.

Under the data, two tankers that had loaded Saudi crude at the Red Sea port of Yanbu likely exited the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in a southerly direction with their transponders switched off: the Greece owned Suezmax tanker Lesvos and the Indian flagged supertanker Desh Vaibhav. Both were last transmitting near Yanbu on Saturday, 1 August, before reappearing on automatic identification systems offshore southern Oman on Monday. Satellite images of Yanbu showed at least five tankers berthed there on Saturday, possibly the port's busiest day since the Houthis threatened Saudi oil exports two weeks earlier.

According to the same report, since the threat was announced Saudi Arabia has re-routed part of its exports northward to Egypt and the Suez Canal, while other vessels have increasingly gone dark while transiting Bab el-Mandeb southward. The previous week six tankers turned away from Bab el-Mandeb in the Arabian Sea after the threats and actual attacks on tankers, signalling destinations such as Gibraltar or the South African ports of Durban and Algoa Bay. More than half a dozen empty supertankers were also en route to Egypt's Sidi Kerir port last week to pick up Saudi crude.