Unrest In Yemen Could Endanger A Key Global Oil Supply Route
ERIN BANCO, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES
BusinessInsider.com
Jan. 21, 2015
A possible coup d’etat in Yemen is threatening not only the security of the Yemeni capital and the stability of the government led by President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. It also poses a danger to the world’s oil supply, as Yemen controls the strait through which many oil tankers must pass on their way from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean and vice versa.
Shiite Houthi rebels have taken the presidential palace in Sana’a, and if they gain power throughout the country, Yemen’s economic infrastructure — especially its oil production — is in danger of collapsing.
A Houthi takeover would threaten the ability of the central government to control the Bab el-Mandeb strait, which separates the Arabian Peninsula from East Africa and links the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean. About 8 percent of world trade travels through the strait, including about 4 percent of the world’s oil and petroleum products, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. And that percentage is increasing every year. If the Houthi rebels and the central government do not come to an agreement, or if violence in the capital escalates, one of the main oil transit routes could close.
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