3.8 million barrels of oil travels each day from Bab el Mandeb
Yemen is a neighbor to the most important oil producer in the world, and is also located along the oil trading chokepoint of Bab el Mandeb, a sliver of water that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. In other words, it connects oil tankers from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. An estimated 3.8 million barrels of oil travel through these narrow straits each day.
Oil Markets Blow Yemen Crisis Out Of Proportion
By Nick Cunningham
Posted on Thu, 26 March 2015 17:53 | 2
Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes in Yemen, causing oil prices to jump on fears over Middle East instability.
The markets clearly reacted with concern over the rising violence in the Arabian Peninsula, which pits Saudi Arabia against Iran in a proxy war. Saudi Arabia is targeting Shia rebels seeking to topple the Saudi-backed Yemeni government. Reuters reports that Saudi bombs targeted an airport and airbase held by the Houthis, which seized Yemen’s capital of Sanaa last September.
“We will do whatever it takes in order to protect the legitimate government of Yemen from falling,” Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, said in Washington DC. A Saudi official told Reuters that a “land offensive might be needed to restore order.”
The conflict involves a convoluted set of regional rivalries. The U.S. is supporting Saudi Arabia with “logistical and intelligence support.” Iran has denounced Saudi Arabia’s attack. The United Arab Emirates has denounced Iranian influence in the region. Meanwhile the U.S. and Iran find themselves on the same side with their attacks on ISIS in Iraq, although their campaigns are not coordinated.
Related: Forget Rig Counts And OPEC, Media Bias Is Driving Oil Down
The overnight surprise attack by Saudi Arabia caused oil prices to spike. WTI has surged over $50 for the first time in several weeks. Oil prices are now up 13 percent in the last week alone. The surge comes amid growing concerns of oil overflowing storage tanks in the U.S. and around the world, which threaten a new round of weakness in oil prices.
But oil markets have a tendency of becoming swept up by unforeseen geopolitical events. Oil traders are apparently concerned about Yemen’s instability sucking in one of the world’s largest oil producers.
However, the markets are overreacting. Yemen is a negligent oil producer, and any disruption to its output would hardly be noticed on the global market. Not only does Yemen produce very little oil, but its production has been declining for much of the last 15 years. Yemen is now producing less than 150,000 barrels of oil per day, or around one-twentieth of what the state of Texas produces each day.
YemeniOilProduction
Not only that, but Yemen has been rife with conflict for quite some time. There were somewhere between 10 and 24 major attacks on oil and natural gas pipelines in Yemen in 2013. The Houthis seized control of much of Sanaa months ago in what has been labeled a “half-coup.” Violence at the bottom of the Arabian Peninsula is not new.
Could this be the reason for Saudi Arabia's stance on oil supplies?
There's an incredible energy development we've been keeping track of for you over the past year... It's the reason Saudi Arabia is acting in desperation... depressing oil prices... and even risking internal unrest. Their (and OPEC’s) very survival is being threatened.
And we believe we’ve put together an incredible video revealing how it works.
View the video here...
Related: Wall Street Losing Millions From Bad Energy Loans
Perhaps the markets are concerned over Yemen’s strategic location? Yemen is a neighbor to the most important oil producer in the world, and is also located along the oil trading chokepoint of Bab el Mandeb, a sliver of water that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. In other words, it connects oil tankers from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. An estimated 3.8 million barrels of oil travel through these narrow straits each day.
YemenMap
Related: Natural Gas Prices To Crash Unless Rig Count Falls Fast
While, in theory, violence could lead to a supply disruption at the 18-mile wide strait, that is highly unlikely to happen. After all, the U.S. Navy routinely patrols the region. Moreover, Houthi rebels do not exactly have a strong maritime presence. The violence will likely remain onshore.
That means that after the initial shock of Saudi Arabia’s attack wears off, oil prices will likely pare back their gains as traders focus on the fundamentals that have kept them up at night in recent weeks. Crude oil storage at Cushing is three-quarters full. China’s strategic petroleum reserve is nearly full. U.S. refineries are temporarily closing for Spring maintenance. All of these things will push the price of oil back down. That has to be weighed against falling rig counts and perhaps the beginning of oil production declines in several key shale areas in the United States.
The violence in Yemen is very much a serious geopolitical and humanitarian concern, but unless the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran transforms from a proxy war into a broader and more direct military clash, there is little justification for oil markets to be so rattled.
By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
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Nick Cunningham
Oilprice.com
Nick Cunningham is a Washington DC-based writer on energy and environmental issues. You can follow him on twitter at @nickcunningham1 full bio
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Leave a comment
ngass on March 26 2015 said:
Overreaction by oil traders? Most investors (speculators) are short. Some of them became clod feet and unloaded their short positions.
Yemen navy? There is not need to battle in the Bab el Mandeb. A few mines are needed to close it. And just an announcement would close it for commercial shipping.
Martin H Katchen on March 26 2015 said:
This may not be an overreaction. For once, Saudi Arabia is actually having to commit it's own troops to a conflict that is not only just on it's border but could extend into Saudi Arabia itself. There are Zaydis in Saudi Asir, which culturally is more part of Yemen than Saudi Arabia. And Asir, as well as Yemen is good guerilla country, full of high mountains like Afghanistan. It does not lend itself to large scale tank movements or air attacks the way, say the Eastern oilfields do.
Nobody knows how well the untried Saudi Army will perform, especially since most are not native Saudis and very few are of the ruling Saudi Family. The Saudis have bet for years on their ability to pay others, Americans, Egyptians and Pakistanis mainly, to defend them. Especially with the Islamic State as an alternative, why should anybody be willing to fight and die for the House of Saud?
The whole strategy on the part of both Iranian Shiites and the Islamic State is to leave the US and established "
grownups or is it seniors?) regimes with "too many fires to put out". And the strategy appears to be working. Troops that Egypt commits to Saudi Arabia cannot be used to fight the Islamic State in Libya (which is true of US troops, assuming it reaches a point of US " boots on the ground"
too. And Egyptian troops abroad cannot fight Islamic State rebels in Sinai or Egypt proper. Obama's remarks about Islamic State being a "cancer" is apt if pessimistic. Cancer, after all, usually kills it's victims eventually and cancer killed Obama's mother.
THAT'S why oilmen get the jitters whenever the major conservative regimes in the Mideast have to start committing their own troops--troops who can easily get the Islamist bug and turn their weapons and their training on their officers.
Yemen is a neighbor to the most important oil producer in the world, and is also located along the oil trading chokepoint of Bab el Mandeb, a sliver of water that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. In other words, it connects oil tankers from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. An estimated 3.8 million barrels of oil travel through these narrow straits each day.
Oil Markets Blow Yemen Crisis Out Of Proportion
By Nick Cunningham
Posted on Thu, 26 March 2015 17:53 | 2
Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes in Yemen, causing oil prices to jump on fears over Middle East instability.
The markets clearly reacted with concern over the rising violence in the Arabian Peninsula, which pits Saudi Arabia against Iran in a proxy war. Saudi Arabia is targeting Shia rebels seeking to topple the Saudi-backed Yemeni government. Reuters reports that Saudi bombs targeted an airport and airbase held by the Houthis, which seized Yemen’s capital of Sanaa last September.
“We will do whatever it takes in order to protect the legitimate government of Yemen from falling,” Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, said in Washington DC. A Saudi official told Reuters that a “land offensive might be needed to restore order.”
The conflict involves a convoluted set of regional rivalries. The U.S. is supporting Saudi Arabia with “logistical and intelligence support.” Iran has denounced Saudi Arabia’s attack. The United Arab Emirates has denounced Iranian influence in the region. Meanwhile the U.S. and Iran find themselves on the same side with their attacks on ISIS in Iraq, although their campaigns are not coordinated.
Related: Forget Rig Counts And OPEC, Media Bias Is Driving Oil Down
The overnight surprise attack by Saudi Arabia caused oil prices to spike. WTI has surged over $50 for the first time in several weeks. Oil prices are now up 13 percent in the last week alone. The surge comes amid growing concerns of oil overflowing storage tanks in the U.S. and around the world, which threaten a new round of weakness in oil prices.
But oil markets have a tendency of becoming swept up by unforeseen geopolitical events. Oil traders are apparently concerned about Yemen’s instability sucking in one of the world’s largest oil producers.
However, the markets are overreacting. Yemen is a negligent oil producer, and any disruption to its output would hardly be noticed on the global market. Not only does Yemen produce very little oil, but its production has been declining for much of the last 15 years. Yemen is now producing less than 150,000 barrels of oil per day, or around one-twentieth of what the state of Texas produces each day.
YemeniOilProduction
Not only that, but Yemen has been rife with conflict for quite some time. There were somewhere between 10 and 24 major attacks on oil and natural gas pipelines in Yemen in 2013. The Houthis seized control of much of Sanaa months ago in what has been labeled a “half-coup.” Violence at the bottom of the Arabian Peninsula is not new.
Could this be the reason for Saudi Arabia's stance on oil supplies?
There's an incredible energy development we've been keeping track of for you over the past year... It's the reason Saudi Arabia is acting in desperation... depressing oil prices... and even risking internal unrest. Their (and OPEC’s) very survival is being threatened.
And we believe we’ve put together an incredible video revealing how it works.
View the video here...
Related: Wall Street Losing Millions From Bad Energy Loans
Perhaps the markets are concerned over Yemen’s strategic location? Yemen is a neighbor to the most important oil producer in the world, and is also located along the oil trading chokepoint of Bab el Mandeb, a sliver of water that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. In other words, it connects oil tankers from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. An estimated 3.8 million barrels of oil travel through these narrow straits each day.
YemenMap
Related: Natural Gas Prices To Crash Unless Rig Count Falls Fast
While, in theory, violence could lead to a supply disruption at the 18-mile wide strait, that is highly unlikely to happen. After all, the U.S. Navy routinely patrols the region. Moreover, Houthi rebels do not exactly have a strong maritime presence. The violence will likely remain onshore.
That means that after the initial shock of Saudi Arabia’s attack wears off, oil prices will likely pare back their gains as traders focus on the fundamentals that have kept them up at night in recent weeks. Crude oil storage at Cushing is three-quarters full. China’s strategic petroleum reserve is nearly full. U.S. refineries are temporarily closing for Spring maintenance. All of these things will push the price of oil back down. That has to be weighed against falling rig counts and perhaps the beginning of oil production declines in several key shale areas in the United States.
The violence in Yemen is very much a serious geopolitical and humanitarian concern, but unless the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran transforms from a proxy war into a broader and more direct military clash, there is little justification for oil markets to be so rattled.
By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
US Energy Storage Market Could Triple This Year
Majors Could Be The Big Winners Of The Oil Price Crash
Lifting The U.S. Oil Export Ban Is No Solution To Low Oil Prices
Join the discussion
About the author
Contributor
Nick Cunningham
Oilprice.com
Nick Cunningham is a Washington DC-based writer on energy and environmental issues. You can follow him on twitter at @nickcunningham1 full bio
More articles from Nick Cunningham
Oilprice Premium
Inside Investor
Inside Opportunities
Executive Reports
Inside Intelligence
Inside Markets
Why Energy Investors Need Premium
In Oilprice Premium
Exports Looking More Likely Exports Looking More Likely
When Stock Issuance Isn’t A Bad Thing When Stock Issuance Isn’t A Bad Thing
Winners And Losers Of EPA’s Carbon Plan Winners And Losers Of EPA’s Carbon Plan
Global Energy Advisory – 20th March 2015 Global Energy Advisory – 20th March 2015
Support Crumbles As Sellers Resume Control Support Crumbles As Sellers Resume Control
Investors Should Beware The Fracklog Investors Should Beware The Fracklog
Special Reports
8 Mega Trends
8 Mega Trends
By Oil & Energy Insider Analysts
8 OIL & GAS INDUSTRY MEGA-TRENDS AND HOW TO PROFIT FROM THEM
Here's what our 400 global energy assets are telling us to be prepared for right now...
LNG Technology
LNG Technology
By Oil & Energy Insider Analysts
THE "FLOATING REFINERY" STOCK THAT COULD FUND YOUR RETIREMENT
This company's incredible tanker technology could eliminate many of the world's offshore pipelines...
Subsea Production
Subsea Production
By Oil & Energy Insider Analysts
THE END OF OFFSHORE DRILLING?
This disruptive market will grow 84% to 270% over the next five years: Discover the 6 equipment suppliers set to profit.
Related Articles
Is Ukraine’s Embattled Energy Sector A Lost Cause? - 26 Mar 2015
Who Benefits Most From Cheap Oil? - 26 Mar 2015
Forget Rig Counts And OPEC, Media Bias Is Driving Oil Down - 26 Mar 2015
Good News At Last For Petrobras - 26 Mar 2015
Driverless Cars Poised To Transform Automotive Industry - 26 Mar 2015
Leave a comment
ngass on March 26 2015 said:
Overreaction by oil traders? Most investors (speculators) are short. Some of them became clod feet and unloaded their short positions.
Yemen navy? There is not need to battle in the Bab el Mandeb. A few mines are needed to close it. And just an announcement would close it for commercial shipping.
Martin H Katchen on March 26 2015 said:
This may not be an overreaction. For once, Saudi Arabia is actually having to commit it's own troops to a conflict that is not only just on it's border but could extend into Saudi Arabia itself. There are Zaydis in Saudi Asir, which culturally is more part of Yemen than Saudi Arabia. And Asir, as well as Yemen is good guerilla country, full of high mountains like Afghanistan. It does not lend itself to large scale tank movements or air attacks the way, say the Eastern oilfields do.
Nobody knows how well the untried Saudi Army will perform, especially since most are not native Saudis and very few are of the ruling Saudi Family. The Saudis have bet for years on their ability to pay others, Americans, Egyptians and Pakistanis mainly, to defend them. Especially with the Islamic State as an alternative, why should anybody be willing to fight and die for the House of Saud?
The whole strategy on the part of both Iranian Shiites and the Islamic State is to leave the US and established "
grownups or is it seniors?) regimes with "too many fires to put out". And the strategy appears to be working. Troops that Egypt commits to Saudi Arabia cannot be used to fight the Islamic State in Libya (which is true of US troops, assuming it reaches a point of US " boots on the ground" too. And Egyptian troops abroad cannot fight Islamic State rebels in Sinai or Egypt proper. Obama's remarks about Islamic State being a "cancer" is apt if pessimistic. Cancer, after all, usually kills it's victims eventually and cancer killed Obama's mother. THAT'S why oilmen get the jitters whenever the major conservative regimes in the Mideast have to start committing their own troops--troops who can easily get the Islamist bug and turn their weapons and their training on their officers.
