Saudi Arabia ready to resume Red Sea oil exports as East-West pipeline comes back online, sources say

Saudi Arabia has restarted operations at its East-West Pipeline and could resume exports from the Red Sea port of Yanbu later on Tuesday, three sources briefed on the matter said.

Drone attacks forced Saudi Arabia to shut its East-West Pipeline on Sept. 13, halting crude loadings at the kingdom’s Yanbu port.

The resumption of supplies on Tuesday helped to drive selling on global oil markets, traders said. Brent crude futures fell by more than US$2 a barrel to its lowest since Sept. 8.

Since disruption to oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz following the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, OPEC’s leading oil exporter has been using the pipeline to reroute around 4 million barrels per day – around 4 per cent of global supply – to Yanbu.

The pipeline was pumping at a low rate after its restart, two of the sources said.

State oil firm Saudi Aramco did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

One of the sources said Aramco was seeking to get the pumping rate back to 4 million bpd, while a security source said full resumption could take weeks.

The pipeline will resume crude supply to Aramco refineries located on the Red Sea coast, one of the sources said, adding that one cargo was scheduled to load at Yanbu later on Tuesday. The person said it would be bound for China.

Another two trading sources said traders were getting ready for Saudi oil loadings by moving tankers to Egypt’s Mediterranean Port Said for ship-to-ship transfers and also to Sidi Kerir.