Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
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Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port of Jeddah is bracing for an increase in business over the next two weeks.
On a breezy Sunday afternoon, the five ships on its platforms were fewer than its usual traffic, but with the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the airspaces of countries along the Persian Gulf, the kingdom’s west coast ports are providing a safer lifeline to and from the region.
About a three-hour drive north of Jeddah, a 700-mile-long gas pipeline has been repurposed to export Saudi oil to tankers lined up at another Red Sea port, Yanbu. These oil cargoes represent much of a one-third hike in Red Sea traffic in the weeks since the war…