World
Saudi Arabia Sustains Shipments With Reserves After East-West Pipeline Suspension
The shutdown of the pipeline connecting eastern Saudi Arabia with Yanbu raises questions about exports to Europe and Asia. According to Euronews in Spanish, the extent of the impact will depend on how long the interruption lasts and on the available stored crude.
Saudi Arabia began relying on stored oil to sustain its exports after drone attacks knocked the East-West pipeline out of service, a key piece of infrastructure for moving crude to Yanbu, on the Red Sea coast.
According to Euronews in Spanish, the Saudi Ministry of Energy said on Friday that pumping had been suspended as a preventive measure, following an attack reported on Thursday in the Riyadh and Medina regions. The ministry said technical and emergency teams were working to secure the facility and assess its condition, without specifying a date for resumption or a full damage assessment.
According to that outlet, authorities in Saudi Arabia and Iraq said the drone attack originated in Iraqi territory. The pipeline, about 1,200 kilometers long, allows oil to be transported from the east of the country to the western coast and avoids shipments having to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
Euronews in Spanish said buyers and operators in the Saudi market estimated that a prolonged shutdown could affect around 4 million barrels per day, although those figures were not confirmed by the authorities. Those same sources calculated that the crude stored in Yanbu would be enough to sustain exports for between five and seven days.
The outlet also said Aramco had reported in May that the pipeline operated at its maximum capacity of 7 million barrels per day in the first quarter, amid disruptions to maritime traffic through Hormuz. Even so, the system’s total capacity does not equal export volumes, since it also supplies Saudi refineries on the western coast.
For Europe, shipments from Yanbu can head عبر the Red Sea to the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean, with Egypt’s SUMED pipeline serving as a complementary route between both coasts. Toward Asia, the usual exit passes through Bab el Mandeb, a corridor that, according to Euronews in Spanish, faces another threat from the Houthi advance on Yemen’s Red Sea coast and the island of Perim.
The report added that an alternative for vessels bound for Asia would be to pass through Suez and sail around Africa, although that would significantly lengthen the journey and would not solve the transport of crude to Yanbu. In that context, the International Energy Agency had warned in its September report that global crude reserves had been declining since February and that Gulf exports in August were around 13 million barrels per day, close to half the pre-war level.
Amid those tensions, Brent futures rose by about 3% in early Monday trading, after new attacks on energy facilities and vessels in the Middle East, Euronews in Spanish reported.
Sources
About this note. Written by El Notero with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on what was published by the cited outlet. El Notero did not conduct its own reporting on this event.
