Saudi Arabia is increasing crude sales that avoid the Strait of Hormuz while Saudi Aramco works to return part of its damaged East-West Pipeline to service within days. The state-run company aims to restore roughly half the line’s capacity by bypassing the affected section, after drone attacks last week shut a route that had carried 4 to 5 million barrels per day.
The 1,200-km pipeline links Saudi Arabia’s main oil-producing fields in the east to Yanbu port on the Red Sea coast. It gives the kingdom an export route outside the Strait of Hormuz. Before the attack, its throughput was equivalent to 4% to 5% of global oil supply.
Restoring about half the pipeline’s pre-attack capacity would mean somewhere in the range of 2 to 2.5 million barrels per day. Aramco has not disclosed the volume that the planned bypass will carry, or how it will operate.
The company is targeting full restoration in approximately six weeks. Repairs to a major pumping facility could take three to five weeks, although partial operations are possible during that period. Two pumping stations serving the pipeline were damaged in the attack.
Saudi authorities have not given an official timeline for repairs. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the pipeline would resume operations “soon”.
An expert expects the line to resume within a couple of weeks at reduced capacity of 40–60 percent, with flows of around 2.5–3 million bpd. That estimate is higher than the range implied by Aramco’s aim of returning roughly half the pre-attack throughput, though the exact capacity of the bypass remains unknown.
The pipeline was shut after drone attacks launched by militias in Iraq, according to the account of the attack provided in the brief. No group has claimed responsibility. The attribution to Iraq-based attackers remains disputed.
Aramco is also seeking to offset lost pipeline volumes through prompt crude sales routed outside the Strait of Hormuz. The company has sold about 20 million barrels to Asian refiners, including in China, this week. Those cargoes can be picked up in September and October.
The bypass effort will determine how quickly Saudi Arabia can recover export capacity through Yanbu while the damaged pumping infrastructure is repaired. The full cost of the work, the technical form of the bypass and whether it will be temporary or permanent have not been disclosed.
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