Red Sea tensions delay oil shipments from Saudi Arabia, Iraq

Crude oil shipments (CL=F, BZ=F) from Saudi Arabia and Iraq — totaling 9 million barrels — face delays stemming from shipping diversions amid escalating Red Sea conflicts, according to a Bloomberg report. Yahoo Finance Senior Reporter Ines Ferré monitors oil futures prices as tensions from Yemen Houthi rebel forces deter movement through international trade routes.

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Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: Oil prices moving higher this morning, as tankers carrying nine million barrels of oil from Saudi Arabia and Iraq are delayed as they change course to avoid the Red Sea. This comes amid ongoing tensions, according to Bloomberg.

Now, joining us now with the latest on some of the movement that we're seeing, it is Ines Ferré standing by at the big board in. And Ines, we're looking at oil just around 75, at least, crude around $74 a barrel.

INES FERRE: Yeah that's right, Seana. And that is crude is jumping because of these Red Sea tensions that we have seen over the last couple of weeks. And I just want to add that when we talk about these vessels that are making their way around the Cape of Africa, that means that they are now extending their trip by about two weeks.

And something very important, also, with respect to these developments, is that when we first started hearing about these Houthi rebel attacks on vessels, it was mainly on vessels that were perhaps carrying goods. The oil-related vessels could still travel through. But over the last week or so, we have seen more and more companies saying that they are avoiding that area altogether.

You just had a Danish company last week that has about 80 vessels that carries refined products. They are going to be also diverting away from the Red Sea. You had Shell recently that said that it is going to avoid that area. So it's starting to really impact these transports of oil and oil-related products.

So you're looking at WTI, that today is up about half of a percent. Brent Crude pushing up towards that $80 per barrel level. And these are about three-week highs. So you've got two things going on with the markets. And this is what we've seen over the last several weeks. You've got the tensions in the Middle East, the tensions in that Red Sea. And then you also have concerns about oversupply, concerns about more supply coming into the markets.

The outlook in China, perhaps, if their demand is not as great as what analysts had been expecting. So you have these two counter forces when it comes to these oil price, guys.