London — A narrow waterway located at the mouth of the Red Sea between Yemen and Djibouti has provided an escape hatch for a sizeable chunk of the Middle East’s oil. That lifeline is now looking increasingly shaky.
For weeks, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have threatened shipping in the Bab al-Mandeb strait, attempting to open a new front in the war between Tehran and Washington, now in its seventh month.
In the past 48 hours, the Houthis have dramatically tightened their grip on the shipping route, capturing both the port city of Mocha and – according to Yemeni government sources – the strategic Perim Island in the middle of the maritime chokepoint.
– Reporting by Anna Cooban on cnn.com
Traders and speculators on Kalshi put the odds at:
71% for prices to surpass $4.60 a gallon,
57% that prices will top $4.80 a gallon and
40% that prices will actually cross the $5.00 national average.