SINGAPORE, July 21 (Reuters) - Spot premiums for Middle East crude benchmarks jumped on Tuesday to their highest in about six weeks, with Dubai and Murban rising close to $3 a barrel after Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said they would impose a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia.

YANBU

A successful effort by Yemen's Houthis to shut the Bab el-Mandeb Strait would strike at one of the world's most important oil shipping routes, potentially triggering a fresh surge in crude prices, disrupting fuel supplies and adding to strains on the global economy, analysts said.

Saudi Arabia has shipped on average over 4.5 million bpd of crude and fuel from Yanbu since April, about 70% of which went to Asia, Kpler data shows.

Asian refiners receiving those barrels could face delays of around a month as tankers are forced to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, Kpler analyst Matt Smith said.

Energy Aspects estimated that more than 3 million barrels per day of Saudi crude currently shipped via the Red Sea to Asia could be forced onto much longer routes.

The disruption would create logistical bottlenecks because fully loaded VLCCs cannot transit the Suez Canal while capacity on Egypt's SUMED pipeline, which links the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea, is fixed.

IRAQ

Indian Oil Corp IOC.NS has cancelled the lifting of Iraqi oil from Basrah Oil Terminal due to increased risk and attacks on some vessels transiting through the Strait of Hormuz, three sources familiar with the matter said.

State-run IOC was preparing to lift 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil in the very large crude carrier Lila Jamnagar around July ​23.

Another state refiner, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd MRPL.NS, also cancelled plans to lift oil from Iraq in the Indian-flagged Aframax tanker Desh Gaurav, they said.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

Cash Dubai's premium to swaps rose $2.26 to $3.00 a barrel.

PRICES ($/BBL)

TENDERS

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co sold less crude to Asian refiners in its latest tender than earlier ones due to uncertainty over shipping via the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S.-Iran war escalated, trade sources said.

Buyers in the latest tender included Taiwanese refiner CPC and South Korea's GS Caltex, they said.

CPC likely bought about 2 million barrels of Upper Zakum crude at a discount of about $4 a barrel to Dubai quotes for ship-to-ship transfer off the Fujairah port in the United Arab Emirates or Oman's Sohar port, the sources said.

GS Caltex purchased 2 million barrels of Das crude, but the price was not immediately known, they added.

ADNOC may have also sold some crude to an Indian refiner, traders said, but details were unclear.

The tender was the sixth the UAE producer has issued since June. ADNOC had offered Upper Zakum, Umm Lulu and Das crude to buyers for August-September loading, according to the document.

However, oil transfers between tankers in waters outside the Strait of Hormuz have slowed following a wave of recent attacks on vessels by Iranian forces.

NEWS

Greek shipping company Dynacom Tankers said two of its managed vessels were hit by projectiles of unknown origin on Monday while sailing off the coast of Oman.

Goldman Sachs said on Monday that Brent crude could top $120 a barrel in the fourth quarter this year and average $100 a barrel next year if flows through the Strait of Hormuz remain disrupted and Gulf output only fully recovers by the end of 2027.

Vessel crossings via the Strait of Hormuz dropped further at the start of the week, shipping data showed, as caution grew following a fresh exchange of attacks between the United States and Iran. A total of four commodity vessels crossed the strait on Monday, mostly on the Iranian route, down from seven the previous day, Kpler data showed.

Chevron CVX.N is shutting-in production at its Petronius facility in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, and all associated personnel are being moved onshore in preparation for Tropical Depression Two, the company said in a statement on Monday.

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Global arbitrage news and flows                 O/CRUDEARB      
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