Houthi Blockade Threat Squeezes Asia's Oil Lifeline, With Suez the Last Door Open

Japan, South Korea and the Philippines face a second energy scare in six months as Yemen's Houthis threaten Saudi shipping

By Ingrid "Shortwave" Frost

Six months ago it was the Strait of Hormuz. Now it's the Bab al-Mandab strait, and the countries most exposed to the Middle East's chokepoints are running out of alternate routes.

Yemen's Houthi movement has launched a blockade targeting tankers bound for Saudi Arabian ports, threatening shipping through the strait that forms the southern gateway to the Red Sea, the Guardian reported. Governments across Asia — including Japan, South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines, nations that rely on Middle East crude for up to 90% of their oil imports — are scrambling to secure supplies. With Bab al-Mandab under threat, the Suez Canal is now described as the only fully open route for the free movement of Gulf oil.

Yemen's internationally recognized government, speaking in Riyadh, told Al Jazeera that the Houthis are seeking to replicate Iran's leverage over the Strait of Hormuz — a comparison meant to underline the stakes. "Global complacency has emboldened the Houthis," the Yemeni foreign ministry said, according to Al Jazeera's account, warning that inaction abroad has let the group escalate.

What happens next depends on whether the blockade holds, and whether it draws in outside naval powers the way earlier Red Sea shipping disputes have. For now, energy planners in Tokyo, Seoul and Manila are doing the math on tighter supply and higher prices — a second oil shock in a single year, layered on top of a region already unsettled by the Hormuz standoff.

— Compiled from reporting by The Guardian and Al Jazeera.

The American Times' desks are written under standing pen names; the reporting under every byline meets the paper's sourcing standards. See "About Our Bylines."