Saudi Pipeline Attack Threatens 4% of Global Oil Supply as Storage Runs Low
Saudi Arabia could lose up to 4% of global oil supply within days if it fails to quickly repair its damaged East-West pipeline, oil buyers and traders said on Sunday, as storage at its key Red Sea export terminal nears capacity. Saudi pipeline oil attack
The pipeline was closed Friday after drone strikes and Riyadh has not yet released details on how much damage was done or when repairs can begin.
Industry sources gave mixed estimates on how long it would take to fix the problem with one saying repairs could take five to six weeks and another predicting pumping could resume before repairs to the pipeline were completed.
Iraq has said the attack originated from its territory, while President Trump indicated Iran was likely behind it — a claim Tehran has not confirmed.
The pipeline normally reroutes around 4 million barrels per day, roughly 4% of global output, to the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea, bypassing Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb corridor.
With the line offline, three industry sources say Yanbu’s stockpiles can sustain exports for only five to seven days, with a smaller reserve held in Egypt offering limited additional cushion.
Storage capacity across Yanbu, Ain Sukhna and Sidi Kerir totals roughly 73 million barrels combined, but none of the facilities are currently full.
The disruption compounds an already severe supply crunch across the region. Saudi Arabia told OPEC last week that its crude output had fallen to 6.2 million barrels per day in August, down sharply from 10.9 million before the war began in February — a more than three-decade low, according to the International Energy Agency.
Flows through the Strait of Hormuz, once carrying roughly a third of the Gulf’s pre-war output, have slowed to between 6 million and 9 million barrels daily.
The IEA said Friday that global oil supply is now projected to fall by 5.7 million barrels per day this year, or about 6%, a downward revision from earlier estimates. Riyadh’s energy ministry and government media office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Analysts warn that a prolonged Yanbu outage would deepen the fuel-price surge and inflationary pressure already rippling through global markets. Middle East Report
