Asian Refiners Ask to Pick Up Saudi Oil Outside Risky Red Sea

By Yongchang Chin

Aug 17, 2026 (Bloomberg) –Some Asian refiners are pushing back against Saudi Aramco’s request that they pick up their oil at Yanbu on the Red Sea, due to the difficulty of finding ships willing to sail through the dangerous waterway.

Recent attacks on tankers and energy infrastructure by Iran-backed Houthi militants in the Red Sea region have raised risks for shipowners and opened up another front in the Middle East conflict. Yanbu became crucial to Saudi Arabia’s efforts to keep shipping large volumes of crude after the war snarled traffic through the Strait of