India's Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. (MRPL) has become the first Indian refinery to instruct its crude oil suppliers to bypass both the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea. This significant restriction has been incorporated into a spot tender seeking up to 1 million barrels of crude for delivery between August 25 and September 6.
The move by MRPL follows a period of considerable disruption in two of the Middle East's most critical oil shipping routes. Houthi forces have been targeting vessels in the Red Sea, leading to a declared blockade on Saudi exports, while traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains significantly below typical levels, even after the cessation of U.S. and Iranian strikes.
According to Business Standard, no previous Indian refiner has imposed such routing requirements in their spot crude import tenders. MRPL reportedly did not award its prior crude tender and has indicated its intention to maintain these routing restrictions in future spot tenders should the situation in West Asia not improve.
Maritime intelligence indicates that tanker traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key chokepoint connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, is near multi-month lows. On Sunday, only 11 commodity tankers were recorded transiting the strait, including seven oil tankers. Two very large crude carriers were observed en route to Saudi Arabia's Yanbu export terminal to load crude, with maritime intelligence firm Windward reporting that tankers loading at Yanbu have begun operating with their Automatic Identification System (AIS) turned off while docked.
