The threat of oil price rises is looming after drone strikes forced Saudi Arabia to close its critical Petroline pipeline.
The move follows a lightning advance by Iranian-backed Houthi fighters who seized Yemen’s entire Red Sea coast.
They now hold three key islands, and the apparently co-ordinated attacks have inflicted a major blow to Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude oil exporter.
Until now, it had sought to circumvent Iran’s bid to close the Strait of Hormuz – the main Gulf shipping route for Asian markets – by piping oil 745 miles west to its Red Sea port of Yanbu.
But now oil tankers
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