#SaudiArabia Plan to Avoid Oil Danger at Hormuz Isn't Much Safer - Bloomberg

Saudi Arabia Plan to Avoid Oil Danger at Hormuz Isn't Much Safer - Bloomberg:

After all of the incidents in the Strait of Hormuz in recent months, Saudi Arabia is understandably nervous about its dependence on using the chokepoint to ship its oil to vital overseas markets. But its plan to pump more of its crude all the way across the country and export it through the Red Sea instead may not bring it as much security as it hopes.

Two separate attacks on oil tankers in May and June just outside Hormuz – a narrow neck of water that links the Persian Gulf to the high seas – have caused costs and insurance rates to skyrocket. British-flagged vessels have shunned the strait after one was seized by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in retaliation for the arrest of the supertanker Grace 1 off Gibraltar earlier this month.

It’s perfectly understandable that producers are weighing up their options. But unlike most of the others in the region, Saudi Arabia actually does have some. It and the United Arab Emirates are the only countries in the Persian Gulf that have a coastline on another sea. In Saudi Arabia’s case it’s the Red Sea, which forms the country’s western boundary.