With Iran and Yemeni Houthi militias disrupting two of Saudi Arabia's main oil export routes—the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb—the kingdom will be forced to export oil via the Egyptian Suez Canal.

Unlike the 1970s and 1980s, when the main buyers of Saudi oil were in Europe and the United States, today the majority of its buyers are in Asia.

To reach Asia, tankers loaded with Saudi oil will have to sail around the entire continent of Africa, adding about a month to the journey.

It takes only 19 days for a tanker to sail from Saudi Arabia's Yanbu port on the Red Sea to Taiwan via the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

However, the route via the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean Sea, the Strait of Gibraltar, and then around the Cape of Good Hope takes 48 days, according to shipping data from Kepler and the London Stock Exchange Group.

Based on Reuters calculations using data from the London Stock Exchange Group, this voyage would increase fuel costs alone from $1.26 million to approximately $2.87 million.

Data from the London Stock Exchange Group shows that crossing the Suez Canal costs a fee of $1 million.

According to Energy Aspects, large tankers will have to sail through the Suez Canal half-empty due to restrictions, then load cargo in the Mediterranean.

To achieve this, the kingdom can offload part of the tanker's cargo into the SUMED pipeline, a 320-kilometer oil pipeline that bypasses the Suez Canal and connects the Ain Sukhna terminal on the Red Sea to Sidi Kerir on the Mediterranean.

This pipeline can transport up to 2.5 million barrels per day of the kingdom's total exports of seven million barrels per day.

Discuss the news with artificial intelligence.