The British oil company Shell reportedly has suspended all shipments through the Red Sea indefinitely amid the ongoing Houthi attacks from Yemen on commercial vessels on the key global trade route.
The suspension was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.
FOX Business reached out to Shell’s office for the Americas on Tuesday but did not immediately hear back, and the Journal report says the company declined to comment on the matter.
The move comes after BP paused shipments through the Red Sea last week, as did Qatar Energy this week of its shipments of liquefied-natural-gas exports.
Speaking to Reuters at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, an executive from the port and freight operator DP World predicted that the prices of consumer goods will be "significantly higher" as a result of the Houthi attacks, specifically impacting Europeans’ pocketbooks.
Since November, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have launched dozens of missiles and drones at commercial vessels around the Red Sea. They are claiming to avenge the Israel counter-operation in Gaza against Hamas terrorists, though the Houthi attacks have grown increasingly indiscriminate and have even imperiled tankers and container ships moving sanctioned Russian oil.
Houthis targeted a tanker by Shell on its way to carry Indian jet fuel through the Red Sea last month.
The Journal noted that around 12% of total global seaborne oil trade passes through the Red Sea.
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After the United States, with help from the United Kingdom, led airstrikes targeting Houthi positions on Friday and Saturday, the rebel forces fired a missile that struck the U.S.-owned Gibraltar Eagle off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden, sparking concern of a broader conflict in the corridor that leads to the Suez Canal, serving as the fastest trade route linking Asia to Europe.
The militia group vowed on Monday to expand attacks on ships in response to the U.S. and U.K. strikes.
The U.S. carried out another strike against Houthi targets in Yemen on Tuesday, a U.S. official confirmed to Fox News.
The strike targeted and destroyed four Iran-provided Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles in Yemen. These missiles were being prepared to target merchant vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, a U.S. official told Fox News.
Reuters reported Tuesday that another ship, a Malta-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carrier, was struck by a missile in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen while sailing from Vietnam to Israel.
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Tanker owners who spoke to the Journal after the U.S.-led airstrikes over the weekend relayed that several captains of chartered vessels bound for Europe through the Suez Canal recently refused to enter the Red Sea, instead choosing to sail around Southern Africa. The Journal also reports that the Singapore ship registry and Intertanko, an industry lobby group, are warning vessels to avoid the waterway.
Fox News' Liz Friden contributed to this report.
