Saudi Arabia has resumed operations on the East-West oil pipeline — Reuters

Saudi Arabia has resumed operations on its East-West oil pipeline and may resume exports from the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea later on Tuesday, three sources told Reuters.

News that the oil pipeline would resume operations on Tuesday triggered a sell-off in global oil markets, traders said. Brent crude futures fell 1.6% per barrel to their lowest level since September 8.

After resuming operations, the pipeline was pumping oil at low capacity, two sources told Reuters. State-owned oil company Saudi Aramco was aiming to increase pumping capacity to 4 million barrels per day, one of them said, without specifying when that might be achieved.

The oil pipeline will resume crude oil deliveries to Saudi Aramco’s refineries located on the Red Sea coast, one source said, adding that the loading of one shipment in Yanbu is scheduled for later on Tuesday. According to the source, the shipment of oil will be sent to China.

Two other sources indicated that traders were preparing to load Saudi oil by moving tankers to the Egyptian Mediterranean port of Port Said for ship-to-ship transfers, as well as to the port of Sidi Kerir.

Saudi Aramco did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

Since oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz were disrupted due to the war in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s leading exporter, has been using the “East — West pipeline to reroute about 4 million barrels per day—roughly 4% of global supplies—to the port of Yanbu for export. The pipeline was shut down following drone attacks on September 11, leading to the suspension of crude oil loading operations in Yanbu.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor