Direct answer
What are the Suez Canal and the SUMED pipeline for oil transit? The canal is Egypt’s artificial cut from the Red Sea (via the Gulf of Suez) to the Mediterranean. SUMED is the parallel land pipe from Ain Sukhna (Ain Sokhna) on the Gulf of Suez to Sidi Kerir near Alexandria. Together they are a canal–pipeline pair for oil that must cross Egypt. On OilRoutes, the Suez box covers that canal corridor — not the whole coast and not a SUMED meter. The in-zone figure is tracked AIS oil-tanker hulls inside the rectangle, not barrels per day. Dated shares and capacity belong to EIA Today in Energy and named 2026 outlets — never to a panel string.
Four names get mashed whenever an “oil via Egypt” headline hits the tape. Hormuz is the Gulf lock. Bab el-Mandeb is the Red Sea’s southern door. Malacca is the long Southeast Asian lane. Suez is the northern cut — SUMED the land pipe beside it. Mix them up and you fly the camera to the wrong rectangle. The eight oil-transit boxes name every rectangle; this page is the Suez–SUMED note.
Open the live map and fly to Suez →
What Suez and SUMED are
The canal is an artificial sea-level cut across the Isthmus of Suez. South: the Gulf of Suez, then the Red Sea. North: Port Said and the Mediterranean. SUMED is the overland twin. EIA’s 23 July 2019 Today in Energy note (id=40152) describes a 200-mile system that moves crude northbound from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean: two parallel lines, and — in that 2019 file — a total maximum flow capacity of 2.8 million barrels a day. The same note calls SUMED the only land alternative if ships cannot use the canal.1 Desk copy uses both spellings of the Red Sea terminal — Ain Sukhna and Ain Sokhna — and Sidi Kerir for the Mediterranean lift near Alexandria. Same pipe.
Geography in one screen: not Hormuz / not BeM / not Malacca
| Waterway | What it is | What it is not |
|---|---|---|
| Strait of Hormuz | Only sea exit from the Persian Gulf | Not an Egypt problem; not SUMED |
| Bab el-Mandeb | Southern door, Red Sea ↔ Gulf of Aden | Not the canal; not Sidi Kerir |
| Suez Canal + SUMED | Artificial cut and the parallel land pipe across Egypt | Not the southern gate; not a Hormuz pinch |
| Strait of Malacca | Long Malay–Sumatra lane to the South China Sea | Not an Egypt shortcut; not a Suezmax problem |
The western doors feed this pair, or they starve it. A hull that never clears Hormuz never needs Egypt. A Yanbu loading that cannot use Bab el-Mandeb is the cargo that does. Those stories live on the Bab el-Mandeb hub, the Hormuz 2026 traffic note, and the Cape reroutes note. Asia after Egypt is often still a Cape rounding, not a hop into the Malacca lane.
Why oil desks care
Desks care because the pair is the short Red Sea–Mediterranean crossing — the Europe/Atlantic door when the southern Red Sea is closed to a flag, and a lightening machine when a VLCC is too deep for a full-load canal transit. EIA, not a map pin, owns the evergreen baseline. The 2019 Today in Energy note put oil through the canal and SUMED at about 9 percent of seaborne traded petroleum in 2017, and LNG through that corridor at about 8 percent of global LNG trade.1 The later World Oil Transit Chokepoints file, last updated 3 March 2026 — the same update the Malacca hub already cites — put about 4.9 million barrels a day of crude and products through the pair in first-half 2025, and named SUMED capacity at 2.5 million barrels a day.2 That is a different vintage from the 2019 2.8 million-barrel capacity print. Quote the file; do not average them.
OilRoutes does not measure any of that. A busy Suez box is geometry plus traffic, not proof of 4.9 or of 9 percent. Do not copy the panel’s “avg flow” string. The 2026 reason the pair sat in every briefing is upstream: Hormuz tight, East–West to Yanbu, then Bab el-Mandeb closed to Saudi-linked ships. Northbound Egypt was the first substitute. That chain is the Bab el-Mandeb hub pointing at the Cape note.
Direct answer
Why do laden VLCCs lighten at Ain Sukhna instead of transiting Suez fully loaded? Fully laden VLCCs often sit too deep for a routine full-load canal transit. Common 2026 workarounds: discharge part of the cargo at Ain Sukhna into SUMED, transit part-laden, and reload at Sidi Kerir; or shuttle the full cargo at Ain Sukhna so a second ship lifts at Sidi Kerir. Suezmax hulls are historically sized around laden transit — a beam-and-draught table, not a nickname guarantee. OilRoutes does not filter by VLCC, Suezmax, or DWT: the map keeps AIS types 80–89. Size-class language is the tanker-types note; the Front Empire case and dated Ain Sukhna / Sidi Kerir prints are on the Cape note.
Laden VLCCs lighten at Ain Sukhna, reload at Sidi Kerir
A VLCC is a deadweight class. Suezmax is a waterway-class nickname. Plenty of VLCCs are too deep, fully laden, for a casual full-load Suez transit. Matt Smith at Kpler, in CNBC’s 12 August 2026 piece, put the usual fix in one sentence: fully loaded supertankers sit too deep; they pump part of the cargo into the pipe at Ain Sokhna, transit the canal, and reload at Sidi Kerir.3 Kpler’s August note, compiled on the Cape page, says the same thing in the Front Empire example: the VLCC could not cross fully laden.4 This page will not invent a draught in metres.
Caixin’s 6 August 2026 exclusive described two Egypt models. One: Saudi shuttle tankers run Yanbu to Ain Sukhna, the crude crosses in the pipe, and the customer’s VLCC lifts at Sidi Kerir. Two: the buyer’s hull loads part at Yanbu, transits Suez lighter, and tops up at Sidi Kerir. Caixin named Olympic Luck and DHT Gazelle on the partial-load model and the COSCO-operated Yuan Xi Hu arriving empty at Sidi Kerir.5 Suezmax hulls are historically sized around laden canal transit and may skip the lightening step. Fairway, on the tanker-types note, treats permitted draught as a beam-and-draught table, not a nickname guarantee. A hull in the Suez box is not, by that fact, Suezmax.
SUMED is not infinite
The pipe is a spare door, not a spare East–West. Capacity language belongs to named files, and they do not all print the same ceiling. EIA 40152 (2019) used 2.8 million barrels a day.1 EIA’s March 2026 update used 2.5 million.2 OilPrice, citing Windward and Kpler on 2 August 2026, used 2.5 million for SUMED and about 1 million barrels a day for the canal’s oil-handling capacity, with some SUMED capacity already reserved.6 Caixin wrote “nearly three million” and “320-kilometre” for a system EIA had called 200 miles — the same corridor in two unit systems.5 Quote the outlet. Do not weld 2.5, 2.8, and “nearly three.” Kpler’s Front Empire case stays on the Cape note. This page will not re-scrape it.
What the OilRoutes Suez box shows
The map’s Suez rectangle is a canal-corridor envelope. In js/chokepoints.js it runs roughly 29.8–31.3°N, 32.2–33.0°E, camera center near 30.45°N, 32.58°E — the cut, not the whole Egyptian coast. A hull is “in zone” when its latest AIS position falls inside that box. The integer is tracked tankers (types 80–89) broadcasting there right now.
Suez box = canal-corridor AIS ≠ SUMED throughput. Same honesty as the maritime-oil-chokepoints note. A pin in the rectangle is a radio object in a drawn box. It is not a barrel, not a canal transit, and not a Sidi Kerir loading. Ain Sukhna or Sidi Kerir activity may sit near the corridor — or outside it — without proving a printed pipeline flow.
Map honesty checklist
- The number is “tracked AIS oil-tanker hulls in this canal-corridor rectangle now.” It will move as messages arrive and stale tracks drop.
- Do not copy the panel’s “avg flow” string. That label is not a dated EIA print.
- The map does not filter VLCC, Suezmax, or any DWT class. It does not receive draught.
- The box is not a SUMED meter and not a Sidi Kerir berth list.
- Assume undercount. Dark Red Sea legs will not appear. How to read live AIS is the literacy note. Demo Mode is labeled and is not live AIS.
How the camera flies is how the map works. How extra days become freight and a crude risk premium — without inventing a dollar — is the markets and freight note.
Open the live map / fly to Suez →
2026: northbound Egypt, then often the Cape
The substitute chain is already on the Cape note. Read that page for dated Ain Sukhna and Sidi Kerir prints, Suez/SUMED volumes, Windward’s Cape-hull sample, and the Front Empire example. The sequence is one line: East–West → Yanbu → Bab el-Mandeb collapse → Suez/SUMED → Cape. This page adds no new scrape of those Kpler, Reuters, Windward, or OilPrice 2026 prints.
The pattern, not the reprint: once the southern door closed to Saudi-linked ships, cargo headed north. CNBC, citing Kpler on 12 August 2026, wrote that Sidi Kerir exports had more than doubled to about 2.3 million barrels a day in August from around 1 million the month before, mostly Saudi crude in Matt Smith’s telling.3 That is CNBC’s August Kpler print. The Cape note’s July / first-week-of-August Kpler series is a different clip of the same tape — do not weld them. Asia after Egypt is often still Africa. Caixin’s 6 August piece is the Chinese-VLCC file: hulls that paused, then used Egypt as a transfer and rerouted around the continent.5 CNBC quoted Aramco’s Amin Nasser, on the 4 August earnings call, on SUMED/Suez optionality and an Africa leg about 25 days longer than Bab el-Mandeb — a CEO quote, not an OilRoutes stopwatch.3 Reuters’ “as much as four extra weeks” and Kpler’s 40-versus-8-day case stay on the Cape note.74 Smith also said most Sidi Kerir liftings were heading to the United States and Europe rather than paying the long way to Asia.3 A pin in the Suez box does not tell you which voyage you are looking at.
AIS will under-count this. CNBC, Windward, and OilPrice all describe Red Sea legs running dark.386 A tanker that went silent off Yanbu may only reappear near Suez, Sidi Kerir, or the Cape. An in-zone count of zero is “no tracked AIS in the canal rectangle,” not proof that SUMED is idle.
Read the Cape note for the dated 2026 detour file →
Direct answer
How should I use the OilRoutes map for a Suez, SUMED, or “oil via Egypt” headline? Open the live map, fly to the Suez box, and treat the integer as tracked AIS oil tankers in the canal-corridor rectangle right now — not throughput, not SUMED capacity, and not Sidi Kerir loadings. Terminal activity at Ain Sukhna or Sidi Kerir may sit near the corridor without proving a printed pipeline flow. Assume undercount. Dated 2026 northbound prints and the VLCC-then-Cape Asia pattern live on the Cape note; the southern-door close is the Bab el-Mandeb hub; the Gulf-exit push to Yanbu is the Hormuz 2026 note; extra days without a dollar print is the routes–markets–freight note. MMSI, status, destination, Demo Mode: how to read live AIS.
How to use the map next to a Suez / SUMED headline
- Name the waterway. “Oil via Egypt” is a trade. The rectangle is Suez. SUMED is the land pair. Hormuz, Bab-el-Mandeb, and Malacca are different cameras.
- Read the claim (lighten, shuttle, Sidi Kerir, dark, VLCC-then-Cape) before you read the integer.
- Fly to the Suez box. Count what is broadcasting in the canal corridor.
- Do not promote the integer to EIA’s 4.9 million barrels a day, to CNBC’s 2.3, or to any other mb/d.
- Do not sort the pins into VLCC, Suezmax, and shuttle. The map cannot.
- Closed southern door or Yanbu: Bab el-Mandeb hub and the Cape note. Closed Gulf exit: the Hormuz note. Freight or a crude spot: the outlet that printed it. The EIA strip, when live, is Brent/WTI — not a Suez premium.
Demo Mode is a separate trap. Cite OilRoutes for what the map shows and for this geography. Cite EIA for the evergreen pair; cite the named 2026 outlets — and the Cape note that already compiled that tape — for the wartime workaround. Never cite this article as a throughput series or a price.
What this page will not do
It will not replace the live map. Homepage / stays the product. It will not invent mb/d, canal or SUMED capacity, dollars per barrel, freight rates, voyage days, VLCC draught limits, or EIA prints. It will not treat an in-zone integer as a census, filter by VLCC or Suezmax, re-scrape the Cape note’s 2026 prints, or turn a pin near Ain Sukhna into a pipeline statistic.