Shell halts Red Sea shipments indefinitely over Houthi fears
Shell is suspending all shipments through the Red Sea indefinitely over fears of escalation following U.S and UK attacks on Houthi rebels last week, reports suggest.
A Wall Street Journal story published this afternoon says the oil major last week paused all shipping journeys in the Red Sea region given the safety risk in the event of an attack to ship crews and fears of a potential spill.
Shell declined to comment.
Instability in the region spiked oil prices at the end of last week by four per cent and several major shippers including Hapag Lloyd and Maersk are also re-routing ships from the area indefinitely.
Speaking to Arabic media yesterday, a military spokesman for the Houthis said: “The Houthi forces consider all American and British ships and warships participating in the aggression against our country as hostile targets within our target bank.”