Saudi pipeline restored

Saudi Arabia said on April 12 that it had restored full pumping capacity on its East–West oil pipeline to about 7 million barrels a day. (spa.gov.sa) The Saudi energy ministry said the line had lost about 700,000 barrels a day of pumping capacity in attacks disclosed on April 9, and said operational work has now returned the system to full capacity. The same statement said Manifa field output of about 300,000 barrels a day had also been recovered. (spa.gov.sa) The East–West pipeline carries crude across Saudi Arabia from the Gulf side of the kingdom to Yanbu on the Red Sea, giving exporters a route that does not require tankers to sail through the Strait of Hormuz. Reuters reported that it has been Saudi Arabia’s only crude export route while the strait remains shut. (reuters.com | spglobal.com) That matters because the pipeline fix does not reopen the waterway that normally handles a large share of Gulf oil shipments. Al Jazeera, citing S&P Global, reported that only 22 ships with their tracking signals on exited the Strait of Hormuz between Wednesday and Friday, down from about 135 daily transits before the war. (aljazeera.com) Oil traders are still dealing with missing barrels and rerouted cargoes. Reuters reported that buyers have been scrambling for replacement supplies and that prices have spiked above $140 a barrel during the disruption. (reuters.com) The line is not a new emergency fix. It was built during the 1980s Iran–Iraq War to move Saudi crude westward across the peninsula to Yanbu after tanker traffic through Hormuz came under threat. (wikipedia.org) Saudi Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser said on March 10 that the company expected the pipeline to reach its full 7 million barrel a day capacity within “the next couple of days,” showing Riyadh had already been leaning on the route during the regional conflict. (spglobal.com) Saudi officials are also still working through damage elsewhere in the system. The April 12 ministry statement said output at Khurais remained affected by about 300,000 barrels a day, even after the pipeline and Manifa volumes were restored. (spa.gov.sa) For now, Riyadh has put its main overland export artery back into service, but the wider supply crunch will hinge on whether traffic through the Strait of Hormuz resumes. (reuters.com | aljazeera.com)