Monday's strike landed where Saudi Arabia's Hormuz bypass lives; the routes keeping it alive now have published price tags. Saudi crude is moving in shuttle cargoes to Egypt, where pipelines carry it to the Mediterranean — estimates run around one million barrels per day. Larger tankers heading north to the Suez Canal must offload part of their cargo to make the transit, adding cost and delay by design of their own draft. [1]

Against that, the baseline: Yanbu once exported roughly four million barrels a day; Lloyd's List calculates receipts down at least a third since attacks on the northern Red Sea began in August. [1] Every workaround converts distance into margin loss — shuttle fees, pipeline tariffs, partial-cargo penalties, insurance stacked on each leg.

The other fix is being negotiated rather than shipped. Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi visited Tehran for what he called constructive dialogue with his counterpart Abbas Araghchi, announcing Tuesday that talks on one temporary Strait of Hormuz shipping corridor are proceeding well — even as Iranian attacks on neutral merchant vessels in Omani waters continue, including one the night before. [2]

Two fixes for one chokepoint: one priced per barrel, the other priced per concession. The shuttle and the Suez offload work today, which is why they exist; the corridor talks might work next month, which is why Albusaidi flew to Tehran. Neither is cheap yet, and only one of them has already been shot at. [1][2]

-- DARA OSEI, London