Saudi Aramco Eyes Partial Restart of East-West Oil Pipeline Within Days

Saudi Arabia is preparing to restart oil flows through its East-West pipeline within days, targeting roughly half of the route's previous pumping capacity, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The pipeline was taken out of service last week after drone attacks hit its infrastructure.

According to the sources, state oil company Saudi Aramco is working on a way to bypass the damaged section of the line, a move that would allow pumping to resume on a partial basis. The company intends to restore the pipeline to full operation in about six weeks, the sources said.

Representatives of Saudi Aramco and the Saudi Ministry of Energy did not respond to Bloomberg's request for comment.

A strategic export route

The East-West pipeline has a throughput capacity of about 7 million barrels per day and stretches roughly 1,200 kilometres. It is used to deliver Saudi crude to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, from where fuel is loaded onto tankers for customers, providing an export route that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz. According to Western media reports, two pumping stations servicing the pipeline were damaged in the drone attacks.

The restart plan underscores how central the East-West line is to Saudi Arabia's ability to keep crude moving to global markets when the Strait of Hormuz route is disrupted. By routing barrels to Yanbu on the Red Sea coast, the kingdom can continue supplying customers without relying on the narrow waterway.

• Partial restart: about half of the previous pumping volume within the coming days
• Full restoration: expected in roughly six weeks
• Capacity: about 7 million barrels per day
• Length: roughly 1,200 kilometres
• Destination: the Red Sea port of Yanbu, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz

The damage to the two pumping stations followed a wave of drone attacks that forced the shutdown of the line last week. Bloomberg cited no details on how the bypass will be engineered, but the reported timeline suggests that repairs to the affected stations will continue in parallel with the partial restart.

As reported earlier by Interfax, the pipeline ceased operations last week after the attacks. Bloomberg's original report is available here.