Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister has announced that oil flows through the country’s key East-West Pipeline have reached 5.8 mb/d.
Commissioned in 1981, the 1,200 km pipeline connects Saudi Arabia’s main oil-producing fields in the east to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, with a maximum capacity of 7 mb/d. It enables the Kingdom to export crude while also supplying refineries, power plants and desalination facilities along the Red Sea coast.
Crude transported via the pipeline can be loaded at Yanbu without transiting the Strait of Hormuz, although tankers sailing from Yanbu to Asia still have to pass through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. While the pipeline cannot fully replace the volumes that previously transited Hormuz before the war, it has contributed to reducing pressure on global crude oil markets.
The pipeline was shut down in early September following a drone strike launched from Iraq. The attack disrupted the export route on which Saudi Arabia had primarily relied since the US-Iran war affected seaborne shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. "Within five or six days of the big attack, we were able to restart flows through the pipeline," the energy minister said.
Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest crude oil exporter (294 Mt in 2024). According to our data, exports went mainly to the Asia and Pacific region (77%, of which 25% are for China), followed by Europe (12%) in 2024 (Enerdata Global Energy Research).