Strait of Hormuz, Breaking News! Iran: War Has Entered a "New Stage"!

The Saudi emergency plan to bypass the Strait of Hormuz is effective.

Currently, Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, is transporting crude oil via a 1,200-kilometer pipeline to the western port of Yanbu. According to the latest data, over the past five days, the average daily crude oil shipment from Yanbu has been about 4.19 million barrels, more than half of Saudi Arabia’s pre-conflict daily exports, indicating that the bypass plan is working.

Regarding the situation, Xinhua News Agency reports that on the 19th, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued a statement saying they launched the 63rd wave of the “Real Commitment-4” operation, “burning” U.S.-related oil facilities in retaliation. The statement said that the war between Iran, the U.S., and Israel has entered a “new phase.”

Detour Around the Strait of Hormuz

Amidst the halt of oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, Saudi Arabia is rerouting oil through a 1,200-kilometer east-west pipeline to the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea coast.

According to ship tracking data compiled by Bloomberg, the average daily export from Yanbu over the past five days was about 4.19 million barrels. This accounts for a significant portion of Saudi Arabia’s total pre-war exports (about 7 million barrels per day) and is much higher than the approximately 1.4 million barrels per day previously shipped through this port.

Data this month shows that the maximum single-day oil loading at Yanbu reached 4.65 million barrels, a record that has occurred three times, with other days showing lower volumes.

Yanbu has now become a focal point in the global energy market, with at least 32 supertankers and Suezmax vessels waiting offshore for loading, and more ships heading toward the Red Sea.

To ensure stable oil deliveries and reduce buyer risk, Saudi Aramco has also made significant adjustments to its trading model. For key markets like Asia, Saudi Arabia has shifted from the traditional buyer-arranged shipping to a “delivery to destination” logistics strategy, with Saudi coordinating the entire transportation chain.

However, from a global perspective, the Strait of Hormuz, as the “throat” of the Persian Gulf, typically handles about one-fifth of global oil shipments. Partial recovery of Saudi exports cannot fully offset the negative effects of a closure of the Strait.

Oil-producing countries in the Persian Gulf such as Kuwait, Iraq, and Bahrain lack similar cross-border bypass infrastructure, and their oil exports remain largely paralyzed.

Additionally, although the UAE has pipelines to the Gulf of Oman, its Fujeirah port has experienced multiple drone attack disruptions, making its oil pipeline routes highly vulnerable to external interference.

Meanwhile, the threat of attacks in the Red Sea remains a “Damocles sword” hanging over Saudi oil export routes.

The International Energy Agency warns that the current situation constitutes the largest disruption of energy supply in history. Even if Saudi Arabia successfully implements partial rerouting, the global oil market will still face severe volatility and high premium pressures in the short term.

“Energy War” Escalation

From the current situation, it appears that the Middle East geopolitical conflict is escalating into an “energy war.”

On March 19, Xinhua News Agency reported that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued a statement saying they launched the 63rd wave of the “Real Commitment-4” operation, “burning” U.S.-related oil facilities in retaliation. The statement said that the war between Iran, the U.S., and Israel has entered a “new phase.”

The statement said that after intense strikes, Iran “destroyed” a series of U.S.-related oil facilities in the Middle East. Additionally, a multi-warhead missile hit and destroyed a military deployment center in southern Israel.

The statement emphasized that Iran has no intention of expanding the war to oil facilities or harming friendly neighboring countries’ economies. Due to enemy attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure, “we have actually entered a new phase of war.” To defend Iran’s infrastructure, Iran “had to attack energy facilities related to the U.S. and U.S. holdings.”

The statement warned the U.S. and Israel that attacking Iran’s energy infrastructure is a “grave mistake.” If such incidents occur again, Iran will “continue attacking your and your allies’ energy infrastructure until it is completely destroyed,” and “the response will be even more severe.”

According to CCTV News, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on the 19th local time condemning attacks on the Habsah natural gas facility and the Babu oil field. The statement said the attack was successfully intercepted by UAE air defense systems and caused no casualties.

The statement pointed out that such attacks escalate danger and seriously violate international law. The UAE reserves the right to take all necessary measures to safeguard national sovereignty and security, and to protect national interests. It also emphasized that attacks on critical infrastructure and oil facilities pose a direct threat to regional security, stability, and global energy security.

Earlier, the Israel Defense Forces attacked facilities related to the South Pars gas field in southern Iran’s Bushehr Province.

According to Xinhua, Iran’s National Gas Company confirmed on the 18th that facilities at the South Pars gas field were attacked by hostile forces and caught fire. The statement also objectively noted that there were no casualties, the fire was fully extinguished, and natural gas production continues safely, maintaining normal national energy supplies.

South Pars is currently the world’s largest known natural gas reservoir, shared by Iran and Qatar. It is not only vital for Iran’s power generation, industrial raw materials, and winter heating but also an important gas source for Turkey and other countries.

Saul Kavonic, an analyst at MST Financial, pointed out sharply, “Destroying millions of barrels of production capacity has huge impacts because it means that even after the war ends, inventories cannot be replenished.”

Umud Shokri, a senior visiting scholar at George Mason University, analyzed that shifting targets from military facilities to core energy production areas marks the formal evolution of the geopolitical conflict into an economic and energy consumption war. Israel’s attempt to pressure Iran by striking its economic core makes the interconnected energy systems extremely vulnerable.

Formatting: Luo Xiaoxia

Proofreading: Wang Jincheng